VALDOSTA – While the national Public Health Emergency ended Thursday and the World Health Organization downgraded the COVID-19 pandemic last week, South Georgia Medical Center officials still urge the public to remain cautious.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, May 11 marked the end of the federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency declaration, meaning COVID-19 reporting frequency and source data will be shifting as the nation has “more tools and resources than ever before to better protect ourselves and our communities.”

Despite concerns of an uptick of cases since October 2022, COVID cases have been on the decline since late January. SGMC and the Georgia Department of Public Health South Health District ended daily and weekly reporting several months ago.

In an interview with The Valdosta Daily Times, Dr. Brian Dawson, chief medical officer of SGMC, said the hospital has seen a decrease in the overall volume and severity of COVID cases.

“And as far as COVID goes, a few months ago, we had a spike where we went up to about eight or 10 cases daily. But then within the course of about one or two weeks, we were back down to around three or four cases a day. We’ve been seeing that. I think that’s fair to say that it is being viewed much in the same way that flu is because it is another viral respiratory illness, and it seems like they are on a solid downward trend. So it’s very reassuring,” he said.

Dawson added while it is normal to see a downward trend of respiratory-related illnesses, such as the flu and respiratory syncytial virus, during the summer months, the overall decrease in cases has health officials “cautious yet optimistic.”

“I’m always cautious about speculation. But what I will say is that as an organization, South Georgia Medical Center is poised to deal with any potential spikes that may occur so that we can be prepared to care for those patients if need be,” he said. “And our line of work we tend to prepare for a lot of different eventualities, not the least of which is COVID-19, influenza or who knows that there can be some other viral infection that presents itself that we have to deal with.

“So we take measures here in our organization to be prepared to deal with another pandemic, if anything, regardless of the source.”

Kristin Patten, public information officer and risk communicator for the South Health District of the GDPH, echoed similar sentiments about the SHD’s COVID outlook and preparation.

“The end of the Public Health Emergency doesn’t mean that COVID-19 is over. However, now that we have safe and effective vaccines, ample testing infrastructure and most people have some level of immunity due to vaccination or infection, COVID-19 is no longer a public health emergency,” Patten said. “The CDC continues to recommend that everyone stay up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations. We also want to encourage anyone who is exhibiting symptoms to get tested and to please stay home until they are feeling well again.”

Patten said SHD statistics indicate a notable COVID case decline for South Georgia.

By January 2022, the SHD, consisting of Ben Hill, Berrien, Brooks, Cook, Echols, Irwin, Lanier, Lowndes, Tift and Turner counties, saw 63,411 COVID cases and 701 deaths.

The district experienced an increase of 39,561 COVID cases from the previous year’s total of 23,850 cases and an increase of 322 deaths from the previous year’s 379 deaths for a total of 701 deaths.

Lowndes County specifically saw 6,829 COVID cases and 111 deaths. By January 2022, the county experienced an uptick of 7,310 COVID cases and 128 deaths, totaling 14,139 cases and 239 deaths.

January 2022 to January 2023 depicts a significant cool down. The SHD reported a 61.2% decrease, dropping from 39,561 cases to only 15,359. Same was true for the death rate, decreasing by 60.2% with 128 deaths compared to the previous year’s 322 deaths for a total of 859 deaths.

Lowndes County numbers tapered off as well, with a total of 17,950 COVID cases and 308 deaths during the same time period. The county cases decreased by 47.9%, dropping from a rate of 7,310 cases to only 3,811. The death rate decreased by 46.1%, dropping from a rate of 128 deaths to 69 deaths.

SGMC has seen a total of 558 coronavirus-recorded deaths since the pandemic began, according to the hospital website.

Approximately 3,806 COVID-19 patients have been discharged from the facility, statistics show.

Statewide, Georgia had seen 2,362,831 confirmed cases since the pandemic’s start, with 35,376 confirmed COVID-19 deaths, according to the state health department.

Overall, while COVID cases and related deaths have declined every year of the pandemic for the South Georgia, Dawson and Erika Bennett, SGMC director of marketing and public relations, contextualized the death rate data, stating the way the death rate is recorded complicates the overall outlook of the virus.

“I would say that the COVID-related deaths are very small and it’s a difficult number to give you because some of these patients that came in had other medical conditions such as strokes, heart attacks, maybe they even had urosepsis. When we went through the evaluation of these patients as part of their screening process, we found out that they were positive with COVID, that they had some other underlying medical illness that precluded that particular illness, and some of it was confounding, so difficult to ascertain how much that (COVID) actually fed into the likelihood of them passing away after that.

“So those numbers are really hard to find,” he said.

Bennett agreed, saying while 10 SGMC patients were recorded as testing positive for COVID at the time of passing, the virus can still be detectable 30-60 days after treatment and symptoms dissipate, further muddying the death data.

Considering these factors, Dawson continues recommending the community exercise personal hygiene and staying up to date on their shots.

“I think that we will need to have a similar vigilance as we would have with the flu and the fact that at this point, the CDC for the public is recommending vaccination. Obviously for health care workers at one point they were requiring it. and I think that certainly that will remain a recommendation for the future as we move forward,” he said.

“From my standpoint, we continue to strongly encourage patients to undergo the basic precautions such as, of course, distancing as appropriate, make sure they wash their hands, cover their cough and get vaccinations as needed.”