VALDOSTA – The total number of COVID-19 cases in Lowndes County has climbed to 75, according to the noon Wednesday update of the Georgia Department of Public Health daily status report.

Five more cases were added since the 7 p.m. Tuesday update, per the report.

In the past week, confirmed cases of the coronavirus increased more than 50% from 49 cases on April 8 to 75 cases today.

Lowndes has had three deaths due to the coronavirus, according to the report.

Additionally, South Georgia Medical Center was treating 19 confirmed COVID-19 patients as of 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to its daily report.

The hospital has discharged 21 COVID-19 patients and had 3 patients waiting for testing results as of the same time, per the report.

Eight SGMC patients have died from the coronavirus.

Plenty of ventilators were still available as of 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, according to Erika Bennett, SGMC director of marketing. The hospital had 63 total ventilators and only 10 were in use at that time, Bennett said.

SGMC had 72 beds dedicated to COVID-19-related patients with the ability to open another unit which would raise the total to more than 90 beds, Bennett said Tuesday afternoon.

For more data on Lowndes and the surrounding counties, The Valdosta Daily Times has created a database to track COVID-19 across the South Health District.

To reach the database, click the link here.

The GDPH status report is updated twice a day — once at noon and once at 7 p.m. The SGMC COVID-19 report updates daily at 12:30 p.m. The VDT database is updated daily after noon.

This story was updated at 12:48 p.m. April 15.