Oak Ridge Today

Oak Ridge Schools announce third COVID-19 case

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Oak Ridge Schools on Tuesday announced a third COVID-19 case as schools prepare to resume this week.

A staff member at Jefferson Middle School has tested positive for the new disease, Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers said in a letter to families and staff members.

The staff member, who will not be publicly identified, took a precautionary test, immediately started a voluntary quarantine, and learned of the positive test result Tuesday morning, Borchers said.

The superintendent’s letter did not say whether the staff member has had symptoms of COVID-19.

It’s the third COVID-19 case at Oak Ridge Schools in the past two weeks. The other two cases were of an instructor and student at Oak Ridge High School band camp.

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Nineteen test positive for COVID-19 at The Groves

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The Groves at Oak Ridge, an assisted living facility on Emory Valley Road, is pictured above on Friday evening, July 24, 2020. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Nineteen people, including 17 residents and two staff members, have tested positive for COVID-19 at The Groves, an assisted living center on Emory Valley Road, an executive said Monday.

Six of the residents are in the hospital in stable condition, said Hollie Bailey, a registered nurse and regional director of operations and clinical services for Navion Senior Solutions. The Groves is part of Navion Senior Solutions.

One of the residents has died.

The other 10 residents are in self-quarantine. They have not exhibited any symptoms, Bailey said.

One of the staff members who tested positive has recovered, and the other remains in quarantine, Bailey said.

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Band camp student tests positive for COVID-19

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A student at the Oak Ridge High School band camp last week tested positive for COVID-19 this week, Superintendent Bruce Borchers said in a letter to community members Wednesday.

The student learned of the positive test result Tuesday night. The student did not report any symptoms before learning of the diagnosis, Borchers said. But before learning of the positive test result this week, the student had been in contact with other students and staff members during band camp through Tuesday of last week, Borchers said.

The student’s positive test result this week follows a positive test result of a band camp instructor last week. Neither the student nor the instructor are being publicly identified.

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Largest percentage of COVID-19 cases in Anderson County in patients 21-30

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The largest percentage of COVID-19 cases in Anderson County is among patients who are 21-30, according to data from the Tennessee Department of Health.

That age group had 64 total cases on Thursday, or about 17 percent of the county’s 374 cases.

That matches the statewide numbers, where patients who are 21-30 years old have consistently accounted for the largest percentage of cases.

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Briceville zip code has highest case rate in Anderson County

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The 21-day COVID-19 case rates for an East Tennessee region outside Knox County, the white area at center, through Wednesday, July 22, 2020. The main Oak Ridge zip code, on the lower northwest side of Knox County, is 37830. The main Clinton and Marlow zip code is 37716. Powell, Claxton, and Heiskell are 37849. The main Oliver Springs zip code is 37840. Rocky Top is 37769, Briceville is 37710, Norris is 37828, and Norris and Andersonville is 37705. Lenoir City and Oak Ridge is 37771. The 37748 zip code is Harriman, Blair, Coalfield, and Oak Ridge. The 37763 zip code includes Kingston and Midway,. (Image by Tennessee Department of Health)

Note: This story was last updated at 7:15 p.m.

The Briceville zip code had the highest rate of COVID-19 cases in Anderson County, calculated compared to population, according to maps posted by the Tennessee Department of Health on Wednesday. The Briceville zip code is 37710.

The Oak Ridge and Elza (37830), Clinton and Marlow (37716), and Rocky Top (37769) zip codes had lower case rates than the Briceville zip code.

Still lower were the Oliver Springs and Coalfield (37840), Powell and Claxton (37849), Heiskell (37754), Norris (37705), and Norris and Andersonville (37705) zip codes.

On July 7, Bill Christian, spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Health, said there wasn’t one large cluster of cases that explained the increase in cases in Anderson County. Oak Ridge Today asked about that after the number of new cases started to increase in the county starting around July 2.

“Like much of East Tennessee, Anderson County is experiencing an increase in community transmission,” Christian said at the time.

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Anderson, Roane report record highs in new COVID-19 cases

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Free drive-through testing for COVID-19 is pictured above on Wednesday morning, April 15, 2020 in the Oak Ridge High School parking lot. Note: Some faces have been blurred in the photo above to protect patient privacy. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Note: This story was updated at 7:30 p.m.

Anderson County reported 39 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, another record. And Roane County reported 33 new cases, also a record.

Oak Ridge is in Anderson and Roane counties. Most of the city’s residents live in Anderson County, but the west side of the city and some large federal sites are in Roane County.

Anderson County now has 374 COVID-19 cases, with 171 active cases, and Roane County has 189, with 111 active.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in Anderson County has more than tripled since early July, and the number of active cases has more than quintupled. The number of hospitalizations has more than doubled this month.

The last record of new daily COVID-19 cases in Anderson County was Tuesday, when 27 new cases were reported. Before that, the previous high was 23 new cases on July 8.

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Updated: Oak Ridge Schools will have staggered classes at middle schools, high school

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Note: This story was updated at 2 p.m. July 24.

Oak Ridge Schools will now have staggered classes for students at its two middle schools and one high school. Those students will now attend classes two days per week and then have online classes the other three days.

Elementary school students will attend classes five days per week.

The new plan was unanimously approved by the Oak Ridge Board of Education during a 45-minute special meeting Thursday afternoon.

The plan had been presented to the school board by Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers.

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School board has special meeting Thursday to discuss re-opening plan

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The Oak Ridge Board of Education will have a special meeting this afternoon to discuss the plan to re-open schools next week.

The meeting to discuss schools re-opening is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. Thursday, July 23. The school board will meet electronically under an executive order signed by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee. The order relates to protecting public health, safety, and welfare in response to COVID-19.

Oak Ridge Schools are scheduled to start July 29 with two options for students and families: 1) attending classes at school with new safety measures and contingency plans, and 2) online instruction through ConnectOR.

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Oliver Springs mayor feeling fine, out of quarantine

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Oliver Springs Mayor Omer Cox (Photo courtesy Omer Cox)

Oliver Springs Mayor Omer Cox on Wednesday said he is feeling fine, does not have any symptoms of COVID-19, and is out of quarantine.

Cox tested positive for COVID-19 before a scheduled surgery. He learned of the test result on Monday of last week. The surgery was canceled.

Oliver Springs announced after the positive diagnosis that it was closing City Hall until August 3.

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COVID-19 cases triple in county, hospitalizations double

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A graph showing total cases of COVID-19 in Anderson County through Tuesday, July 21, 2020. (Image courtesy Tennessee COVID-19 Case Tracking Coronavirus-19 Outbreak Response Experts (CORE-19) at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville)

The number of COVID-19 cases has tripled in Anderson County since early July, and the number of hospitalizations has doubled.

Anderson County had 105 total cases of COVID-19 on July 2, when the growth in cases started to accelerate. On Tuesday, it had more than three times as many cases, 327.

The number of active cases—total cases minus recoveries and deaths—has increased even faster. The number of active cases in Anderson County on July 2 was 32. On Tuesday, the county had about five times as many active cases, 154.

The number of total cases and active cases—now 327 and 154, respectively—have both increased about 50 percent in one week.

Anderson County hospitalizations increased to 21 on Tuesday. That’s up from 10 on July 5, meaning more than half of the county’s hospitalizations have occurred in less than three weeks. Seven of the hospitalizations have been in the past week.

Anderson County has reported a third death due to COVID-19, the first since June 4. Joe Lenhard, a former U.S. Department of Energy executive and a founder of the Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee, died of COVID-19 on Friday at Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge.

Separately, an Oak Ridge employee who worked at the Y-12 National Security Complex and lived in Maryville died of COVID-19 on Wednesday at Parkwest Medical Center in Knoxville.

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Y-12 employee dies of health issues related to COVID-19

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William Mark Easterly

A project controls manager at the Y-12 National Security Complex has died of health issues related to COVID-19, the nuclear weapons production plant said Tuesday.

The Daily Times has identified the employee as Mark Easterly of Maryville. The newspaper said Easterly was employed by Bechtel for almost 30 years, and he began working at Y-12 as a project controls manager in March.

His death is the first death due to COVID-19 at a National Nuclear Security Administration site. Y-12 is an NNSA site. The NNSA is part of the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Daily Times reported that Easterly’s wife, Brandee, is principal of John Sevier Elementary School in Maryville.

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Roane County will not require face masks

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Ron Woody (Screenshot from video posted by Woody)

Roane County will not require face masks or face coverings, County Executive Ron Woody said Friday.

In an online video, Woody said most essential businesses are now requiring face coverings. That means a mask requirement by the county may not be necessary anymore, Woody said. Stores that require face coverings now include Kroger, Lowe’s, and Walmart.

“The decisions were made the businesses, which we think was the best decision anyway,” Woody said. It’s better than a government mandate, which no one wants, the county executive said.

“Our businesses should step up and be the responsible party, and they were,” Woody said.

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