MOULTRIE, Ga. — For much of the coronavirus pandemic, Colquitt Regional Medical Center has been a major source — perhaps the primary source — of COVID testing and vaccinations.

As case numbers have climbed recently and health care staffing is stretched thinner, hospital CEO Jim Matney has been encouraging the county health department to do more. His pleas have begun to bear fruit.

Prior to last week, the Southwest Public Health District — which oversees the health departments in 14 counties, including Colquitt — offered three hours of COVID testing in Colquitt County one day per week. Last week it began an increase, and this week it is offering seven-day-a-week testing as well as a second testing site.

The health district contracted with Mako Medical, a testing company, to provide COVID tests throughout the region. As of Sunday, Aug. 29, Mako is offering the tests 9 a.m. to noon every day at the former Colquitt County High School, 1800 Park Ave.

Pre-registration is encouraged, but registration can be done on-site. To register ahead of time, visit https://mako.exchange/splash/GAmakotesting/.

In addition, tests are being performed at the Colquitt County Health Department, 214 W. Central Ave., 2-4 p.m. Monday-Thursday. The health department is limited to 75 patients per day, which is about half the number Mako served last Tuesday, according to Tonya Bozeman, county nurse manager of the Colquitt County Health Department.

The health department is also offering COVID-19 vaccinations 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday for people 12 years old and older. Appointments are preferred; call 229-352-6567 to schedule a time. Walk-ins are accepted on a limited basis.

The moves follow weeks of lobbying by Matney, who addressed the issue in Zoom calls with community leaders on Aug. 18 and 25 and addressed the Colquitt County Board of Commissioners’ Aug. 24 meeting.

Matney said in the Aug. 18 call that the hospital saw 435 positive COVID tests in July but by the date of that call there were 806 in August. At the commission meeting, he projected more than 1,200 positive cases by the end of the month. 

“What we think will happen in September is it will go to 3,600 to 4,000 cases in September,” he told the commissioners.

He said in the Aug. 25 Zoom call that things will get bad, but maybe not the “worst case scenario” he described at the commission meeting. Earlier waves peaked after a few weeks then started to decline. He estimated this wave’s peak will probably be in the second week of September.

However, the hospital, which has 99 beds for patients, has been over its capacity for weeks. At the Aug. 24 commission meeting, Matney said there were 115 patients at that time. Not all were COVID patients, but all had to be treated. Fifteen were being kept as in-patients in the hospital’s emergency department, he said.

He calculated that by the projected peak in mid-September, he could have 134 patients in the hospital. He said the hospital staff can handle that number for a short period.

“It’ll be tough,” he said in the Aug. 18 Zoom call. “… We’ll make it for a month. If it goes on beyond September, I don’t know what we’ll do.”

With the health department stepping up to offer more testing and vaccines, the hospital can reduce its efforts in those areas and free up health care workers for other duties.

“I need to take those people off testing and get them taking care of patients,” Matney said.