Oak Ridge Today

COVID case, positivity rates rising as school resumes

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A daily snapshot of COVID-19 cases in Anderson County on Tuesday, July 27, 2021, includes, among other information, the daily number of new cases and the daily positivity rate. (Graphic by Tennessee Department of Health)

Note: This story was updated at 12:15 p.m. July 28.

The COVID-19 case and positivity rates are rising in Anderson County as school resumes in Oak Ridge. More than 100 new COVID-19 cases, four hospitalizations, and three deaths have been reported since mid-July. The positivity rate, a measure of how many COVID-19 tests are positive each day, is about 10 percent, which exceeds World Health Organization guidelines.

Cases in Tennessee have surged from a low of a few hundred new cases per day about a month ago to roughly 2,100 new cases on Tuesday. Current hospitalizations across the state have climbed from a low of a few hundred to 762. Fifty-one hospitalizations were reported Tuesday.

In the past two weeks, the rate of new COVID-19 cases per day in Anderson County has steadily climbed from a low of about one new case per day in Anderson County to 7.6 new cases per day. The county reported 112 new cases of COVID-19 between Monday, July 12, and Tuesday, July 27, according to data from the Tennessee Department of Health. (See also here and here.)

There were 74 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the week between Tuesday, July 20, and Monday, July 26. That’s an average of about 10.6 new cases per day. The one-week average of 10.6 new cases per day was higher than the 14-day case average of 7.6 reported by the state.

Two new deaths due to COVID-19 were reported in Anderson County on Monday, although that doesn’t necessarily mean the deaths occurred Monday because the state reporting can lag a few days behind when the deaths occurred.

Also in the last two weeks, the positivity rate has climbed from about 2.3 percent on Monday, July 12, to 9.3 percent on Tuesday, July 27. The WHO has recommended a positivity rate below 5 percent.

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Heat wave forecast again this week

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Image courtesy National Weather Service in Morristown

Another heat wave is expected to build in the region this week, forecasters said.

Scattered showers and storms were expected early this week, and the heat wave is forecast to build into the Tennessee Valley and southern Appalachians by mid-week, according to the National Weather Service in Morristown.

Above-normal temperatures can be expected from Wednesday to Friday, with temperatures climbing into the middle 90s or possibly upper 90s across parts of the Tennessee Valley, the NWS said.

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Beauty of Giving: Free haircuts offered

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The Atomic City Sportsmen Club and Oak Valley Baptist Church have invited students to kick off the new school year with a fresh free haircut and style during the annual Beauty of Giving event today (Sunday, July 25).

Participating barber and beauty shops will open at 2 p.m. and provide haircuts and styles to children on a first-come basis, a press release said. Participating shops include High Maintenance, The Pro’s 2, Fade to Black, and Fresh Master Cuts in Oak Ridge.

An event advertisement said the event, Beauty of Giving, is from 2 to 7:30 p.m.

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High temperatures expected due to heat wave

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Image courtesy National Weather Service in Morristown

High temperatures are expected across the Tennessee Valley and the southern Appalachian Mountains as a heat wave expands across much of the country, according to the National Weather Service in Morristown. With humidity, heat indices in the region could exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

The heat wave is forecast for the rest of July and into early August.

“Above-normal temperatures are likely over the Tennessee Valley and southern Appalachians,” the NWS said. “Temperatures will climb into the middle and upper 90s across parts of the Tennessee Valley for the end of July and early August along with muggy conditions.”

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Half of power outages this year caused by falling trees, tree limbs

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A fallen tree on Wiltshire Drive caused widespread power outages on Thursday, May 27, 2021. (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge)

Half of the power outages in Oak Ridge this year have been caused by falling trees and tree limbs, Electric Director Ardo Ba told City Council on Tuesday.

Since January, vegetation has accounted for about 50 percent of power outages, Ba said.

Animals such as squirrels and snakes have caused about 13 percent of the power outages in the past six to seven months, and equipment failures, traffic crashes, and other causes have accounted for roughly 37 percent of the outages, Ba said.

Ba provided some details about significant power outages this year. The largest outage occurred on July 8 on Tuskegee Drive near a city fire station, when a transmission line switch caught fire. More than 8,400 people power.

The next largest outage was caused by a tree falling on a transmission line on Wiltshire Drive on May 27. The 150-foot tree that fell on the transmission line had been well outside the right-of-way, Ba said. That line provided a main feed to two substations, and more than 7,200 customers lost power when the tree fell on the transmission line.

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Smoke from wildfires in West, Canada causes haze in Oak Ridge

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Haze obscures the mountains north of Oak Ridge in this view from Pine Ridge on Wednesday evening, July 21, 2021. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Smoke from enormous wildfires in the western United States and Canada is causing haze in Oak Ridge and across the eastern United States, and affecting air quality in many regions.

This map shows the locations of fires in the northwest United States and Canada, the smoke plume spreading across North America, and air quality indices. (Map by AirNow.gov via National Weather Service in Morristown)

On Thursday, CBS News reported that there are wildfires burning in 13 states, and 83 large fires have burned close to 1.3 million acres. The largest fire, the Bootleg Fire in Oregon, was burning more than 476 square miles, an area about the size of Los Angeles and three times the size of Detroit.

Smoke from the wildfires is blowing into Canada and then south around the Great Lakes and east to the East Coast, according to a map posted by AirNow.gov and shared by the National Weather Service in Morristown.

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COVID-19 case rate rising quickly, positivity spikes

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A daily snapshot of COVID-19 cases in Anderson County on Wednesday, July 21, 2021, includes, among other information, the daily number of new cases and the daily positivity rate. (Graphic by Tennessee Department of Health)

The COVID-19 case rate in Anderson County remains low, but it is rising quickly–and the positivity rate has spiked over 20 percent, according to information published by the Tennessee Department of Health. There has been another death due to COVID-19 in Anderson County.

In late June and early July, the number of new cases of COVID-19 per day in the county had dropped to an average of roughly one new case per day. That was the lowest level observed in a year or more, since the first peak in July 2020.

In the past week or so, though, the new case average has climbed past two, then three, and now four new cases per day.

During the past 14 days, Anderson County has averaged 4.4 new cases per day, according to the Tennessee Department of Health. That was up from 0.8 new cases per day in the previous two weeks.

The positivity rate, which measures how many patients test positive out of those tested each day, has climbed even quicker. It had been in a low range of around 2 percent to 3 percent, lower than the World Health Organization guideline of 5 percent. But Tennessee Department of Health data shows the positivity rate has spiked past 20 percent, which is high, and the seven-day average has climbed quickly to 10.2 percent in about a week or so. The number of tests per day remains fairly low, however, and it’s not clear what part the low test rate might play in the high positivity rate. When the case count was higher, Anderson County was testing several hundred people per day.

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Police asking for information about arson on Waddell Circle

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Image by Oak Ridge Police Department

The Oak Ridge Police Department is asking for tips about an arson on Waddell Circle on Sunday, July 11.

The Oak Ridge Fire Department had responded to a residential fire in a quadplex that evening. (That was the same evening widespread power outages and partial power outages were reported in Oak Ridge.)

The fire on Waddell Circle was later determined to be set intentionally, and ORPD investigators responded to the fire.

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COVID cases still low but rising again

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A daily snapshot of COVID-19 cases in Anderson County on Monday, July 19, 2021, includes, among other information, the daily number of new cases and the daily positivity rate. (Graphic by Tennessee Department of Health)

The number of new cases of COVID-19 remains low in Anderson County, but the rate of new cases per day is rising again. Also, the positivity rate has climbed back over 5 percent, and there have been four new hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in the past week.

About a week ago, the number of new cases per day was at about one. That was the lowest it had been since cases first started rising more than a year ago, before the first COVID-19 case peak in July 2020. The case average has been low for weeks after a slow decline starting in January.

In the past week, however, the new daily case rate has slowly climbed again. In the past two weeks, Anderson County has averaged three new cases of COVID-19 per day, according to the Tennessee Department of Health. That is up from an average of 1.1 in the prior 14 days.

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Jimmie Allen to perform at Secret City Festival

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Allen was named New Male Artist of the Year at the 2021 Academy of Country Music Awards

One of country music’s hottest rising stars will perform on the first night of the Secret City Festival in Oak Ridge this fall, a press release said.

Jimmie Allen, who made history as the first black artist to launch a career with two consecutive No. 1 hits on country radio, including his debut single “Best Shot,” and his latest single “Make Me Want To,” was named ACA’s best new male artist of the year in 2021, a press release said.

“We are excited to bring a rising talent to perform in Oak Ridge,” said Naomi Asher, marketing chair of the festival. “Our lineup this year will appeal to a wide array of people and include all the fun activities and vendors that festival-goers have been used to seeing for years.”

The festival is scheduled from September 24-26 at Alvin K. Bissell Park. Doors open at 6 p.m., with the opener taking the stage at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online at https://www.secretcityfestival.com.

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Statutory rape, misconduct charges dismissed against former officer after probation

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Charges against Cassen Jackson-Garrison, right, a former Oak Ridge Police Department police officer, were dismissed this year after two years of supervised probation. Jackson-Garrison had agreed to plead guilty to statutory rape and official misconduct in 2017. His attorney, Greg Isaacs, left, said Jackson-Garrison had accepted responsibility for the allegations, and he compared Jackson-Garrison’s childhood story to the one portrayed in the movie “The Blind Side.” The probation was a judicial diversion, allowing the felony charges to be dismissed if Jackson-Garrison complied with the terms and conditions. Jackson-Garrison and Isaacs are pictured above during a plea agreement hearing in Anderson County Criminal Court on Monday, June 12, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

After a two-year probation, charges were dismissed this year against a former Oak Ridge Police Department officer who had agreed to plead guilty to statutory rape and official misconduct in 2017.

His attorney successfully asked for judicial diversion for Cassen Jackson-Garrison, 36, more than three years ago, although the state opposed it. The judicial diversion gave Jackson-Garrison, a former star football player, the opportunity to have the felony charges dismissed and expunged, or removed from his record, at the end of his probationary period. But he had to comply with the terms and conditions. The two-year supervised probation ended in December 2019.

 

Charges against Cassen Jackson-Garrison, standing at right, a former Oak Ridge Police Department police officer, were dismissed this year after two years of supervised probation. Jackson-Garrison had agreed to plead guilty to statutory rape and official misconduct in 2017. His attorney, Greg Isaacs, standing next to Jackson-Garrison, said Jackson-Garrison had accepted responsibility for the allegations, and he compared his client’s childhood story to the one portrayed in the movie “The Blind Side.” The probation was a judicial diversion, allowing the felony charges to be dismissed if Jackson-Garrison complied with the terms and conditions. Jackson-Garrison and Isaacs are pictured above during a plea agreement hearing in Anderson County Criminal Court on Monday, June 12, 2017. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

After a two-year probation, charges were dismissed this year against a former Oak Ridge Police Department officer who had agreed to plead guilty to statutory rape and official misconduct in 2017.

His attorney successfully asked for judicial diversion for Cassen Jackson-Garrison, 36, more than three years ago, although the state opposed it. The judicial diversion gave Jackson-Garrison, a former star football player, the opportunity to have the felony charges dismissed and expunged, or removed from his record, at the end of his probationary period. But he had to comply with the terms and conditions. The two-year probation ended in December 2019.

The charges were dismissed in January 2021, after Jackson-Garrison completed the terms of his diversion sentence.

The plea agreement has been previously reported, but the dismissal of the charges has not been. The charges appear to have now been expunged from Jackson-Garrison’s record, at least the portion that is publicly available.

Jackson-Garrison surrendered his P.O.S.T. (Peace Officer Standards Training) certification for police officers as part of his plea agreement, but he will not be placed on the sex offender registry.

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For members: Man charged with three store robberies

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An Oak Ridge man has been charged with three store robberies in December and January. Two of the stores that were robbed were in Oak Ridge, and one was in Claxton. More than $3,000 was reported stolen, and a license plate reader tied the suspect to the Claxton robbery, according to court records. He was arrested after a foot chase after the third alleged robbery.

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An Oak Ridge man has been charged with three convenience store robberies in December and January. Two of the stores that were allegedly robbed were in Oak Ridge, and one was in Claxton. More than $3,000 was reported stolen, and a license plate reader tied the suspect to the Claxton robbery, according to court records. He was arrested after a foot chase after the third alleged robbery.

The first two alleged robberies have already been reported. They were at the Marathon Market on Edgemoor Road in Claxton on December 29 and the J&C Market on East Tennessee Avenue in Oak Ridge on January 4.

An Oak Ridge man has been charged with three store robberies in December and January. Two of the stores that were robbed were in Oak Ridge, and one was in Claxton. More than $3,000 was reported stolen, and a license plate reader tied the suspect to the Claxton robbery, according to court records. He was arrested after a foot chase after the third alleged robbery.

The rest of this story is available if you are a member: a subscriber, advertiser, or contributor to Oak Ridge Today.

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Oak Ridge, TN 37831

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Thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today. We appreciate your support!