VALDOSTA – The COVID-19 patient count at South Georgia Medical Center rose to 108 Tuesday.

Dr. Brian Dawson, chief medical officer at South Georgia Medical Center, said at the Hospital Authority last Wednesday, when the patient count was at 87, he can’t predict what may happen with the omicron surge, but he is looking to the past for insight.

The expectation is the variant will burn out but there could always be another variant that pops up to upend that burnout, Dawson said.

Looking at the different spikes, he said he can get a picture of what may occur.

“We had the one that hit us last year (referring to 2020) around Christmas (and) that thing kind of grew over the course of six months,” he said. “The one that we had in August grew over the course of about three weeks, four weeks.”

The current omicron surge seemed to appear within about a week and a half, Dawson said, and is deduced to have started on Dec. 26 within Lowndes County.

Dr. Clark Connell, emergency room medical director, said the omicron surge hit the day after Christmas and hasn’t let up since. The SGMC virus patient count was in the single digits at Christmastime.

“This wave has really ramped up, it seems, faster and with a higher velocity than any other wave we have seen,” Connell said. “I think that speaks to the transmissibility of this virus (variant).”

The omicron variant is less lethal, he said, but it has caused patient numbers to rise faster than the previous surge caused by the delta variant.

At the height of the delta surge, which was Aug. 22 according to the SGMC COVID-19 report, the hospital had 113 patients within its care. Coming from a patient low of three on June 25, SGMC experienced a 3,666.7% increase by way of 110 patients.

The increase came during the course of nearly three months.

The patient count at SGMC didn’t even reach 100-plus patients until Aug. 16 with 109. That was a 3,533.3% increase from a patient low of three within the hospital’s care June 25.

SGMC has experienced a 2,060% increase since its patient count of five on Christmas day, with the patient count now at 108 as of Jan. 25. In a month, the omicron variant has forced 100-plus patients into the hospital’s care.

The surge came on fast and the hope is it will leave the same way it came, Dawson said.

He’s been looking at where the omicron variant was first observed, South Africa, for reference of when the surge may end. He hasn’t found anything significant yet but is watching it closely.

The only thing Dawson said he could say for sure is SGMC needs to stay prepared for whatever is next, especially when a lull in numbers occurs again.

“When there’s a lull, we don’t celebrate, we just go ahead and prepare — that’s an opportunity to be ready for that next time,” Dawson said.

On Tuesday, the number of COVID-19-related deaths in the hospital remained the same at 471 since the start of the pandemic. 

The average age of SGMC COVID-19 patients is 61 years old and 66 is the average age of ventilated patients, the hospital reports.

SGMC reports 67% of hospitalized patients are unvaccinated while 83% of ventilated patients are unvaccinated.

SGMC has discharged 2,632 COVID-19 patients throughout the pandemic.

The hospital has administered 51,199 vaccinations, which is the same number reported Monday.

Monday, Lowndes County reported 13,789 COVID-19 cases and 237 related deaths since the start of the pandemic. About 14,244 antigen cases have been reported; antigen cases are results from rapid virus tests.

Statewide, Georgia has reported about 1,765,000 cases since the start of the pandemic, with more than 27,100 virus-related deaths. The number of cases marks an increase of nearly 39,000 cases since Friday.

This story was updated at 10:33 a.m. to reflect Dr. Brian Dawson spoke on the omicron surge Wednesday and a percentage change.