COVID Making Comeback — Jeff Davis is ‘Danger Zone’

Over the past two weeks, there have been 16 new cases of COVID-19 infections in Jeff Davis County as it appears cases are beginning to spike across the nation.
That’s the latest news from the Georgia Department of Public Health Daily Status Report. The report comes along with the release of a study that reveals that Jeff Davis County is one of seven Georgia counties that are among the top 20 counties in the nation in the “danger zone” for the Delta variant because of low vaccination rates.
According to the report by Surgo Ventures, a national health nonprofit, only 21.4% of Jeff Davis County residents have received COVID vaccinations. That figure was gleaned by Surgo Ventures from data compiled by the Center for Disease Control.
“We believe these 20 counties are Delta danger zones, which means they represent the strongest convergence of COVID-19 vulnerability, underlying community barriers to vaccine uptake and low vaccination rates of all counties in the United States at this point in time,” said Dr. Sema Sgaier, co-founder and CEO of Surgo Ventures and adjunct assistant professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “We are calling on public health officials and local leaders in these counties to take immediate action.”
The other Georgia counties deemed to be in the “danger zone” are Charlton (14.5%), Lanier (19.8%), Telfair (20.2%), Heard (20.5%), Treutlen (21.6%) and Bacon (21.7%). According to Surgo Ventures, Charlton County’s vaccination rate is the lowest in the nation.
Georgia leads the nation in the number of counties with dangerously low vaccination rates with seven. Other states that had counties with such low vaccination rates are Missouri (5), Florida (3), Texas (2), Tennessee (1), Arkansas (1) and South Dakota (1).