VALDOSTA – The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has fallen during the past few days but South Georgia Medical Center has reported two more virus-related deaths in the past week.

SGMC reported 21 hospitalized coronavirus patients Monday, down from 35 hospitalized virus patients a week ago. Thirty-five was the highest number of COVID-19 hospitalizations reported as SGMC since late February.

Twenty-one is still higher than the single-digit number of patients reported between late March to late June. The hospital reported no virus patients on two dates in March and April – the first time no virus patients were reported since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

SGMC reported 22 patients in early July. Since, the number of hospitalized virus patients has fluctuated between the mid to high teens and the lower 20s, rising to the mid 30s early last week, falling again to the 20s late last week. 

SGMC has reported 537 virus-related deaths since the start of the pandemic. That’s up two virus-related deaths since last week, according to the hospital. SGMC reported two additional COVID-19 deaths the previous week. The hospital reported no virus-related deaths for several weeks.

The hospital has released 3,365 virus patients in the past two years and several months. It has released about 45 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the past week.

The average age of SGMC COVID patients is 58 years old; 63% are unvaccinated; 78 is the average age of ventilated COVID-19 patients; none of the ventilated patients are unvaccinated, according to the hospital’s daily report.

Lowndes County has reported 16,579 virus cases since the start of the pandemic – up about 200 cases in the past week.

Lowndes County has reported 285 virus-related deaths – with no additional virus-related deaths reported in the past couple of weeks – since the start of the pandemic, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health. Not all SGMC patients are Lowndes County residents.

Statewide, Georgia has reported more than 2,126,000 cases since the start of the pandemic, an increase of about 24,000 reported cases in the past week, and about 32,400 virus-related deaths, according to the GDPH.