Editor’s note: Since publication of this article, Taliaferro has reported its first confirmed COVID-19 case according to the Department of Public Health.

ATLANTA — Nearly seven weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic, only two of Georgia’s 159 counties remain case-free.

The small, rural counties of Taliaferro and Glascock have reported no confirmed coronavirus cases as areas around them slowly increase their counts. County officials attribute the “blessing” to early closures and serious social distancing.

In Glascock, a county with about 3,200 people, County Board of Commissioners  Chairman Lori Boyen said since the first cases were reported in Georgia, local leaders pushed social distancing as a duty to protect the community.

“We’re so rural. We can be as isolated as we want to be,” she said. “Most everyone has been staying at home.”

Nearly all of the county’s 26 local churches — deemed one of the riskiest places for a hotspot of cases in communities across the state — closed before the governor even placed a ban on large gatherings. Faith leaders across the community weighing the health and safety of their elderly members over in-person services.

Josh Carswell, pastor at the Gibson Church of God in Glascock, said the impact COVID-19 would have if released into the community would be “devastating.” The church suspended in-person gatherings in mid-March.

“If the main people that are dying are the older folks who have health deficiencies,” he told The Valdosta Daily Times, “our responsibility is to our congregations to just shut down and make sure that we’re doing what’s going to be safe for their health.”

Gov. Brian Kemp was vocal about his personal struggle with mandating churches shutter — encouraging them to move online. He never barred in-person services despite early warnings that they created coronavirus case clusters like in Albany.

Lewis Berry, mayor pro-tem of Mitchell, a town in Glascock with a little less than 200 people, said when medical professionals recommended people social distance and even isolate, the county “took it to heart.” Mitchell City Hall closed its doors March 16.

“The COVID-19 virus is something that is rather unknown,” he said. “There’s no apparent pill or drug that cures it readily. And it can be fatal. People take the medical professionals opinions to be valid.”

County Board of Commissioners Chairman William Blockum told The Valdosta Daily Times “there’s nothing special going on” in Taliaferro — the least populated county in Georgia.

“Taliaferro citizens are doing what it takes to keep a case-free community and we pray it remains that way,” he said.

Surrounded by cases, officials in both counties wonder not “if” but “when.” Glascock has many nurses who work in Augusta and Richmond County which have reported nearly 400 cases and 15 deaths as of noon Thursday. Early on when the pandemic caused a frenzy at grocery stores, people from surrounding counties flocked to Glascock, concerning residents.

“We’re just blessed, it has not come here yet, that we know of,” Boyen said. “Hopefully we can hold a little longer, but just talking with my health department about everything, it wouldn’t surprise me if we end up with cases here.”

Boyen said it’s hard to hear about the plight of some of the state’s hardest hit counties such as Doughtery — where Boyen has family and a cousin who is a nurse.

She knows if it hits Glascock, the county will face the same obstacles as Georgia’s other rural areas. Getting their hands on personal protective equipment, she said, would be the biggest challenge.

For now, residents and county officials continue to wait out the pandemic in their homes.

“We’re surrounded by it. It kind of makes you wonder how it hasn’t inched in on us yet,” Carswell said. “But I am grateful, very grateful, that it hasn’t done such a thing.”