MOULTRIE, Ga. — Colquitt County remains stable in its recovery though it’s neither best nor worst in doing so. It remains an average, a Department of Public Health official said.

Within the past 14-day period, the DPH said Colquitt County has reached 304 cases per 100,000 people. It’s right in the middle as other surrounding counties find themselves in the outliers.

Dr. Charles Ruis, DPH Southwest District health director, reported this information on Sept. 1.

“There are a few counties that are right around 100 and there are quite a few that are 500,” he said. “So 200-300 is a common rate in many places in Georgia, including Southwest Georgia.”

Roughly 304 cases per 100,000 people translates to about 9.8 new cases per day. On Aug. 10, Ruis reported Colquitt County as having 265 cases per 100,000 people  translating to about 8.6 new cases per day.

It’s a slight change but one that’s expected, Ruis said. The information for 14-day periods are updated daily and needless to say, some days are better than others.

“If you look at these numbers and put them on a graph, it’s not a smooth graph, it’s more like a sawtooth graph,” Ruis said. “One day it looks like things are getting worse, another day things may look dramatically better and then another day it’s worse. It depends on how narrow you gather the data from.”

Fortunately for the county, even looking at a six-week period, observers will still see a straight line showing Colquitt’s stability. Looking at it over the entire pandemic, Ruis said, Colquitt is seeing smaller amounts of cases than it did from May-June.

“Sometimes it helps not so much to follow one day to another, but to look at a longer span of time and compare a period of months to each other,” he said. 

The big picture is that Colquitt County isn’t as sick as it was before. So the question was asked did school have anything to do with the slight jump.

The school system has begun releasing weekly reports of the number of students and staff testing positive for COVID-19. During Week 1, 14 students and 1 staff member were confirmed and 237 students and 23 staff members quarantined.

The system’s Week 2 update shows 11 students and 6 staff members confirmed with 541 students and 40 staff members quarantined. 

Ruis said that though the county’s numbers aren’t changing too much, more of the people testing positive or getting sick are involved with the school system.

“It’s not a great surprise. There have been lots of communities within the state over the last three weeks or so where the spread has occurred involving schools,” he said.

Even in the Southwest District there are a lot of students and staff members quarantining, so Colquitt County isn’t alone. As far as trends go, Ruis said there’s no way to predict what will happen.

Taking an inference, Ruis looked at the behaviors of school children during the summer. They were isolated and now they are back in school consistently around others.

It’s natural to expect more transmission under those circumstances, he said. 

“We don’t know exactly what’s in store for us, but that’s why it’s so very important that we all do our parts to keep COVID-19 out of the schools,” Ruis said.

Parents should be screening their children each day before school, determining if they have signs of sickness. The same goes for faculty and staff for themselves.

COVID-19 can be asymptomatic, so this can be hard to do. Even still, Ruis said the schools have been doing well in their efforts to keep the virus out.

As testing remains free at the Colquitt County Health Department, Ruis said the site has been busy with testing — a good thing. It’s having more tests than any other surrounding counties and that’s why it needs people to pre-register and set up appointments.

“Right now, 90 percent of people are not making appointments and when they show up without an appointment, we have to go through a lengthy registration process,” Ruis said. “They have to wait and the people behind them have to wait. It’s quicker for everyone to make an appointment.”

Anyone wanting to take a test can set up an appointment by calling 229-352-6567 Monday-Saturday or by registering at covid19.dph.ga.gov, the appointment portal where they can choose the time and location convenient for them to take the test.