VALDOSTA – Lowndes County confirmed 31 more cases of COVID-19 Friday, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health daily status report.

The county has reported a total of 844 cases since the start of the outbreak, according to the report.

Friday’s increase comes a day after Lowndes experienced its biggest and second-biggest hikes in new cases on back-to-back days., according to The Valdosta Daily Times COVID-19 database.

Total COVID-19 cases in Lowndes have increased 275% since June 1, according to the Times database.

Locally, another restaurant will temporarily shut down due to a positive COVID-19 test.

Mellow Mushroom’s Valdosta location announced Friday it would close for a few days to deep clean after a staff member tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a Mellow Mushroom Facebook post. 

“Unfortunately we have been impacted by a positive COVID-19 test result within our staff. We will take the next few days to professionally deep clean and sanitize our entire facility to ensure the safety of our guests and employees,” read the post. “Testing of all employees is an important part of our plan before we reopen. We are sorry for any inconvenience and look forward to serving you all again very soon.”

Coronavirus deaths in Lowndes have not increased in nearly two months as four residents have died since the outbreak started, according to the health department report.

In the South Health District, 8,967 COVID-19 tests have been performed throughout its 10 counties, according to the 10 a.m. Friday update of the district COVID-19 website.

The GDPH publishes the number of hospitalizations of each county’s residents. Seventy-one Lowndes residents have been hospitalized due to COVID-19 since the start of the outbreak, according to the report.

The additional information should not be confused with the hospitalization numbers published daily by South Georgia Medical Center. Not all SGMC patients are Lowndes County residents and some patients who have been transferred from other regional hospitals have tested positive for COVID-19, according to past reports.

SGMC was treating 17 confirmed COVID-19 patients, according to its Friday daily report.

The hospital had discharged 112 COVID-19 patients and had no patients waiting for testing results, according to the report. 

SGMC experienced another patient death due to the virus Thursday bringing the total to 17 deaths. It is the second COVID-19 death at the hospital in June. Again, not all SGMC patients are Lowndes County residents.

For more data on Lowndes and the surrounding counties, The Valdosta Daily Times has created a database to track COVID-19 across the South Health District.

To reach the database, click the link here.