MOULTRIE, Ga. — Health officials confirm there are no free rapid COVID tests available within Colquitt County.

In a Zoom call Wednesday that included healthcare professionals, community leaders and elected officials, Jim Matney, CEO of Colquitt Regional Medical Center, repeated that the hospital cannot offer outpatient rapid tests, a policy that has been in place more than a week.

“We are trying to conserve that precious resource for those who have serious medical needs for them, especially the elderly,” Matney said. 

The Colquitt County Health Department echoed this statement stating that they can no longer offer rapid tests, according to Tonya Bozeman, county nurse manager.

Emily Watson, director of marketing for CRMC, said during the call that the Convenient Care medical clinic located at 207 31st Ave. S.E. is providing rapid COVID tests for the charge of $80.

Currently, the MAKO Medical/Department of Public Health testing site at the old Colquitt County High School, 1800 Park Ave. across from Walmart, and CRMC are doing PCR testing which take “a few days to come back,” according to Dr. Woodwin Weeks of CRMC, who also participated in the call. 

CRMC is currently only testing patients who have an order from a physician to get a test. The DPH testing site is available to anyone from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday. While preregistration is recommended, it is not required to get a test done, according to Bozeman. 

You can find the preregistration link here.

This short supply of rapid tests has come during a fairly significant wave of COVID in Colquitt County. The Department of Public Health’s website said Jan. 13 that Colquitt County reported 116 cases that day — the highest single-day total since the pandemic began. The rolling seven-day average of cases, considered a more reliable metric, was also the highest it’s ever been at 67.3 per day.

Entities around the county are feeling its effects. Colquitt Regional Medical Center’s third floor has been closed to patients for more than a week due to staffing issues linked to COVID. 

More than 100 of the hospital’s 1,300 employees are out of work, either due to a positive COVID test or while waiting for results of a pending test, Watson stated in a previous article in The Observer. 

Matney said employees on sick leave are down to 71, but he stated during the Zoom call that he expected that number to continue to vary as more employees and their families must wait longer before being cleared to return to work or school.

The Health Department is also facing a shortage of staff. 

“Many people are out right now,” Bozeman said. “There’s only me and about four or five others.”

Likewise, the Colquitt County School District has reported a considerable upswing in its COVID cases. According to the most recent Colquitt County School COVID-19 Weekly Update, 151 students and 54 staff members were confirmed positive between the dates of Jan. 3 through Jan. 7.

Colquitt County Superintendent Ben Wiggins stated in the Zoom call that “three classrooms in three separate schools” have been excused due to COVID. He did not elaborate which classes or which schools he was referring to. 

He further stated that the county is still working on updating its COVID guidelines.

“We just updated them about 30 minutes ago,” he said during the meeting.

Their guidelines are currently available here but are listed as last updated on Jan. 3.

While governmental entities and private businesses struggle with this current wave of COVID, Weeks and Matney see “the spike dissipating soon.”

“We saw last year that by Feb. 1, the Christmas spike of COVID almost, if not completely subsided,” Matney stated.

“Yeah that sounds about right,” Weeks agreed. “These holiday spikes are going to be something we are going to continue seeing.”

While professionals’ hopes are high that the recent spike will subside quickly, there was no word on how soon more rapid tests are going to become readily available within the county.