COVID cases and deaths

MOULTRIE, Ga. — The Department of Public Health Southwest District reports that Colquitt County has reached a COVID-19 flatline. Still, some parts of the community remain more affected than others.

Last week, Dr. Charles Ruis, DPH Southwest District health director, said they’ve been tracking COVID-19 confirmed cases by age demographics since March 1.

The largest percentage of cases, 78, were in ages 18-64, whereas it was 11 percent each for ages 0-17 and ages 65 and up.

Ages 65 and up, however, carry the higher death percentage: 64 percent of Colquitt County’s deaths have been in that age group, compared to 46 percent in ages 18-64. No Colquitt Countians under 18 years old have died of the virus.

This data is for Colquitt County as of Aug. 16. According to Ruis, they have yet to see a change in these percentages as of Aug. 25.

Ruis also released the race demographic data for confirmed cases in Colquitt County from March 1 to Aug. 23. 

Forty-three percent of confirmed cases are in the Hispanic population, 29 percent in the white population, 18 percent in the African-American population, 2 percent in other and 8 percent unknown. 

Among the county’s 26 COVID-19 deaths, 36 percent were white, 36 percent African American and 24 percent Hispanic. In 4 percent of the county’s deaths, the race was not known.

Looking at the United States Census Bureau’s Colquitt County population data for 2019, the population estimate was reported at 45,600, 72.7 percent being white, 23.8 percent being Black/African American and 19.6 being Hispanic/Latino.

Ruis said Hispanics may be more affected because of the nature of their work or living conditions. It’s just speculation, however.

“Those are some things that are very hard for people to control that can have an effect on the spread of the virus,” he said. “I suspect that crowded living conditions and working situations where it’s hard to social distance or to wear a mask could contribute to that.”

Like he said last week, Colquitt County has an economy that relies upon manual labor, which doesn’t allow for much social distancing and was a cause for high transmission rates early in the pandemic.

The DPH has been in contact with manufacturing and agribusiness companies because of this, making sure they’re keeping workers safe and separated. Ruis said local businesses have been doing great with that.

In terms of trying to decrease these percentages specific to their populations, Ruis said the virus hasn’t been around long enough for the DPH to completely study its effects on the community.

“Knowing for sure why a certain group is exposed and why certain groups have a higher death rate, there’s still some uncertainty,” Ruis said.

But regardless of age, race or medical condition, he said everyone should continue following DPH recommendations: washing your hands, social distancing, staying home when sick, wearing a mask.

As always, the elderly or those with chronic health conditions are the most at risk and need to exercise maximum caution, Ruis said.

The DPH has also updated its website to allow people to schedule appointments online 24/7 for a COVID-19 test. To do so, visit covid19.dph.ga.gov.

Filling in necessary information ahead of time through the website will make the testing go faster, he said.

“[Getting information at the drive-thru site] adds another five to 10 minutes for every person. And if you have an automobile with several people, then that slows it down and adds another 20 minutes to that car,” he said. “Everyone behind that car has to wait. If people would either call or go online and make their own appointment, [they] would drive into the parking lot and, generally, would drive out of the parking lot in five minutes, over and done with.”