VALDOSTA — Lowndes County and South Georgia Medical Center reported more COVID-19-related deaths Tuesday. 

After South Georgia Medical Center passed more than 100 COVID-19 deaths Monday, the hospital reported Tuesday 107 patients have died from the virus since the start of the pandemic, according to the hospital’s daily report.

In the past two weeks, more than 30 hospital patients have succumbed to the virus and 91 patients have been discharged, according to SGMC’s daily reports.

COVID-19 deaths increased by 30.4% during the past two weeks while discharged virus patients grew by 17%.

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.

While Georgia’s mortality rate hovers around 2%, Dr. Brian Dawson, SGMC chief medical officer, said the hospital’s mortality rate has indeed risen from about 11% a few weeks back to 15.3% Tuesday.

Dawson said the rise in deaths includes families deciding to take critically ill relatives off of life support at the hospital. Those patients are called “comfort and care measure only,” he said.

Dawson noted SGMC’s mortality rate compared favorable to a Centers for Disease Control study performed in March of 305 COVID-19 patients from seven metropolitan Atlanta hospitals and one community hospital in South Georgia which observed a 17.1% mortality rate in those patients.

Dawson said 53% of the inpatient mortalities have been Lowndes residents, leaving 47% of the hospital deaths being from people out of town.

The hospital has received patients from 23 other counties, he said, and continues to take patients from other health care systems. Usually the incoming patients are more ill, Dawson said, and need services the other hospital cannot provide.

“We get the sickest ones,” he said.

Though SGMC is no longer hovering at approximately 70 patients per day as it was a few weeks ago, Dawson said he feels relieved but perpetually ready for another spike in patients.

“Forty-eight and 49 feels real good when you’ve been in the 70s,” he said. 

With more students returning to schools, Dawson said SGMC is prepared in case of another surge results from in-person schooling, but his eyes are also on other disaster scenarios with hurricane season here.

“I’m thinking beyond that. I’m thinking about these hurricanes. I’m thinking about if they hit things down on the Gulf Coast and patients get displaced,” he said. “… All I’m looking at is where my next round of patients are going to be coming from.”

As flu season approaches, Dawson said residents should soon add another step to their current hygiene routine of mask wearing, hand washing and social distancing: get a flu shot.

In Lowndes County, 59 COVID-19-related deaths were reported Tuesday by Georgia Department of Public Health daily status report.

COVID-19 cases in Lowndes rose by 11 Tuesday, according to the GDPH report.

Lowndes County has reported 3,379 coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, according to the GDPH report.

At South Georgia Medical Center, 48 COVID-19 patients were being treated at the hospital Tuesday, according to the hospital’s daily status report.

So far, 173 Lowndes residents have been hospitalized due to COVID-19, since the start of the outbreak, according to the report.

The district has performed 24,797 coronavirus tests throughout its 10 counties as of Tuesday, according to the district COVID-19 website.

SGMC has discharged 542 COVID-19 patients – numbers reflecting the total patients discharged since the start of the pandemic — and had one patient waiting for testing results, according to the SGMC report.

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.