VALDOSTA – South Georgia Medical Center continues reporting only low single-digit numbers of virus-related patients since reporting zero COVID-19 patients hospitalized nearly two months ago. 

The hospital has, however, reported two virus-related deaths in the past couple of weeks.

SGMC reported zero patients back on April 8, which was the first time in more than two years, March 17, 2020, since the start of the pandemic, that the medical center had no virus-related patients hospitalized.

By the Memorial Day weekend, SGMC had reported eight COVID-19 patients hospitalized.  Eight, however, is one of the highest numbers reported since late March.

On April 7, the number of hospitalized patients in SGMC dropped to two, which was the first time the hospital had only two virus-related patients since March 18, 2020. 

The hospital has reported 531 virus-related deaths since the start of the pandemic. The number is up from 529 earlier in the month.

Lowndes County has reported 281 virus-related deaths since the start of the pandemic, which is unchanged from earlier in the month. Not all SGMC patients are Lowndes County residents.

The SGMC patient number was at 50 hospitalized COVID-19 patients at the end of February. The number of hospitalized SGMC virus patients reached a high of 112 during the omicron variant.

The record high during the past two years of the pandemic was 113 patients reported hospitalized Aug. 22, 2021, during the delta variant surge at the hospital.

SGMC had reported COVID-19 patients in the low single digits at Christmas rising to triple digits within a few weeks of the new year.

SGMC has discharged 3,147 COVID-19 patients throughout the pandemic.

Lowndes County has reported more than 15,453 COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, which is a rise of about 150 cases since earlier in the month and has reported 281 virus-related deaths, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health. More than 15,866 antigen cases have been reported; antigen cases are results from rapid virus tests.

Statewide, Georgia has reported more than 1,981,000 cases since the start of the pandemic, with about 31,800 virus-related deaths – which is about 250 more deaths statewide in the past week, according to the GDPH.