VALDOSTA – Lowndes County has broken 1,000 cases of COVID-19.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Lowndes increased by 42 Wednesday, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.

The county has reported a total of 1,017 cases since the start of the outbreak, according to the report.

The slight majority of confirmed and presumptive coronavirus cases in the county, 30.92%, have been in the younger age range of 11-24, according to South Health District records obtained by The Valdosta Daily Times. Cases of patients 55 years or older account for 18.83% in Lowndes.

Information about race from the district, however, is partially unknown. The district reports 46.18% of cases in Lowndes remain unknown.

The high rate of unknown races is due to two factors: private labs not always collecting information about a race and some people feeling uncomfortable providing their race when registering for a COVID-19 test, said Kristin Patten, South Health District public information officer. She encourages residents to provide demographic information such as race and age and assures people the information is used solely for statistics.

Total COVID-19 cases in Lowndes have increased 331% since June 1, according to The Valdosta Daily Times COVID-19 database.

Compared to testing data from the district, the June jump in cases remains disproportionally higher than the district’s 217% hike in testing during the same period, indicating a possible higher rate of positive tests.

More than 2,450 people had been tested at the South Georgia Medical Center drive-through at the Smith-Northview location, Erika Bennett, SGMC director of marketing, said Tuesday. That’s up from the 1,000 tests performed during May, she said.

Despite continually rising case numbers, hospitalizations in Lowndes have only gone up 44%, a drastically smaller percentage than the new case rate.

Seven coronavirus deaths have been confirmed in Lowndes County, with the average age being 77, according to the South Health District.

In the district, 9,971 COVID-19 tests have been performed throughout its 10 counties, according to the Wednesday update of the district COVID-19 website.

COVID-19 cases across the district have revealed different demographics than Lowndes. The 35-54 age bracket has the highest percentage, 28.14%, contracted the virus, according to the district.

The elderly people in the district – ages 55 and older – represent 22.93% of cases and 11- through 24-year-olds account for 24.29%, according to the district.

Like Lowndes, there is an inordinately high portion of cases with unknown races at 38.44%, which have also been affected by the two factors Patten cited about Lowndes’s unknown percentage.

District deaths due to COVID-19 have the same average age as Lowndes County at 77 years old, according to the district. It reported 65 deaths from the virus across its 10 counties Wednesday.

The GDPH publishes the number of hospitalizations of each county’s residents. Seventy-five 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 31 confirmed COVID-19 patients, according to its Wednesday daily report.

The hospital had discharged 126 COVID-19 patients and had five patients waiting for testing results, according to the report. 

SGMC experienced one more coronavirus death Wednesday, bringing the total to 20 patient deaths since the outbreak of the virus. Five patients have died from COVID-19 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.