Oak Ridge Today

Updated: State sets another record in new daily COVID cases

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

Note: This story was last updated at 10:15 p.m.

Tennessee set another record in new daily cases of COVID-19, with 1,822 more cases reported Friday.

The number of active cases in the state rose to more than 18,000.

There have now been more than 11,000 cases in Shelby County, which includes Memphis in West Tennessee, and more than 10,000 cases in Davidson County, which includes Nashville in Middle Tennessee.

In East Tennessee, the case count has passed 1,000 in Knox County, which includes Knoxville, and there are more than 2,000 cases in Hamilton County, which includes Chattanooga.

Eleven more illnesses were reported in Anderson County on Friday. That’s the highest one-day increase.

There have now been 116 cases in Anderson County. Subtracting recoveries and deaths, there are now 42 active cases in the county, which is a high.

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COVID-19 emergency delays start of football, girls soccer seasons

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Blankenship-Field-James-Mitchell-Aug-2019
Blankenship Field—the city’s football field—is pictured above in August 2019. (File photo by James Mitchell via City of Oak Ridge)

The extension of the COVID-19 emergency in Tennessee has delayed the start of the high school football and girls soccer seasons.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has extended the COVID-19 state of emergency until August 29. A prior order by the governor includes limitations and restrictions on contact sporting events and activities.

In an update sent to member schools on Tuesday, Bernard Childress, executive director of the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, said member schools cannot have any competition or scrimmage with other schools while the governor’s order is in place. The schools cannot have close contact activities during practice for football, 7-on-7 football, girls soccer, wrestling, and basketball. Football and girls soccer cannot begin their seasons as originally scheduled, Childress said.

The Oak Ridge football season opener had been scheduled for August 21.

The TSSAA Board of Control had a special meeting Wednesday and voted unanimously to require that member schools follow the governor’s executive order for sports activities.

The board discussed the effect that the extended COVID-19 state of emergency will have on contact sports in the fall. Football, girls soccer, and competitive cheer are considered contact sports.

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ORNL Federal Credit Union requiring face masks in all branches

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The Oak Ridge branch of ORNL Federal Credit Union on Rutgers Avenue is pictured above on Friday, July 3, 2020. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

ORNL Federal Credit Union is requiring face masks in all branch offices starting today (Friday, July 3).

The credit union announced the policy in response to a decision by the Knox County Board of Health. The health board approved a public health order this week that requires masks in most indoor public places, the credit union said. Financial institutions are not exempt. The public health order, which is effective today, is in response to the increasing number of local and national COVID cases.

ORNL Federal Credit Union said face masks will be required in all of its branch offices, not just Knox County branches. Disposable face masks will be provided to members who do not have one, the credit union said. People who enter a branch without a mask will be asked to use the credit union’s digital or drive-through services.

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COVID-19 cases rise by 1,800, another new high

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A summary of COVID-19 cases in Tennessee through Wednesday, July 1, 2020. (Image courtesy Tennessee Department of Health)

Note: This story was last updated at 7:35 p.m.

COVID-19 cases in Tennessee rose by about 1,800 on Wednesday, another new high as the case count surges in Tennessee.

The previous high of 1,410 new cases was just five days ago, on Friday, June 26.

There were five new deaths reported Wednesday and 50 new hospitalizations. Current hospitalizations climbed from 527 on Monday to 574 on Tuesday.

Tennessee has now averaged more than 1,000 new cases per day for the last four days, which is a new trend. It’s not clear how long that trend might continue, if it continues.

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Tennessee reports more than 3,000 new COVID cases in three days

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A graph showing daily new COVID-19 cases in Tennessee through Monday, June 29, 2020. (Graph by Ken Mayes/Used with permission)

Tennessee reported more than 3,000 new COVID-19 cases in the past three days—an average of more than 1,000 new cases per day—and the number of cases has passed 100 in Anderson County.

There are now about 15,300 active cases in Tennessee and 32 active cases in Anderson County.

The Tennessee Department of Health did not report COVID-19 data on Sunday because of an unplanned shutdown of the state system. But the two-day numbers released Monday showed an average of more than 1,000 new cases per day for Sunday and Monday.

The state reported an additional 1,212 new cases on Tuesday. That is the second-highest new daily total reported since the first case was diagnosed in the state on Wednesday, March 4.

The highest daily total in Tennessee, 1,410, was reported just four days ago, on Friday.

The COVID-19 dashboard by the Tennessee Department of Health through Monday, June 29, 2020.

The Baker Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee said the seven-day average for new cases in the state has reached a new all-time high every day since June 24.

Hospitalizations are also at an all-time high. There have been an average of 47 new hospitalizations each day, the Baker Center said.

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Updated: State reports new daily high in COVID cases

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This COVID-19 dashboard by the Tennessee Department of Health is through Saturday, June 27, 2020.

Note: This story was last updated at 2:30 p.m. June 28.

Tennessee reported about 1,400 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, a new daily high, and the state passed 40,000 total cases on Saturday.

There were 1,410 new cases reported Friday. Of those, 1,396 were new confirmed cases, according to the Tennessee Department of Health. Fourteen were new probable cases.

The previous high was 1,188 new cases a week earlier, on June 19.

Seven of the state’s top 10 highest new daily case counts have been in the past two weeks. Five of them have been in the past five days.

The number of cases increased by 728 on Saturday, pushing the total to 40,172. Of those cases, 39,848 were confirmed, and 324 were probable.

The number of cases in Anderson County rose by one to 90 on Saturday. The day before, on Friday, the case count went up by eight, the highest increase in the county. Previously, the largest daily increase had been five.

While the hospitalization rate has fallen across the state, the number of current hospitalizations has increased during the past few weeks from 391 on Friday, June 12, to 484 on Thursday, June 25.

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Three people shot, two arrested, one charged with attempted murder

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Adrian C. Curb

Three people were shot in Oak Ridge on Thursday, four bystanders were allegedly in imminent danger, and two people have been arrested, with one facing two charges of attempted first-degree murder, according to police and court records.

Adrian Conan Curb, the 40-year-old Oak Ridge man charged with attempted murder after the shooting, allegedly had a handgun with a drum-style magazine attached, according to arrest warrants filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court.

The shooting was reported at about 8:39 p.m. Thursday on South Dillard Avenue in Scarboro.

The three people who were shot were taken to hospitals with injuries that aren’t considered life-threatening, the Oak Ridge Police Department said in a press release Friday.

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Roane State plans to re-open in phases with COVID precautions

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Roane State Community College plans to re-open in phases with COVID-19 precautions, allowing students to access many of the services they need on campus before the fall semester, a press release said.

For the remainder of June, the following offices will operate from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the designated locations:

  • Bookstore (Roane County and Oak Ridge campuses)
  • Bursar/Business Office (Roane County and Oak Ridge campuses)
  • One Stop (all campus sites)

Beginning Monday, July 6, the offices listed above will transition to a Monday through Thursday schedule on the Roane County and Oak Ridge campuses from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m., the press release said. Success coaches will also begin a return to campus for in-person appointments. All campus sites will begin offering One Stop services on the four-day summer schedule. This schedule will continue for the remainder of July, the press release said.

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ORISE launches new app, redesigned website

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Part of the ORAU campus in central Oak Ridge is pictured above on May 29, 2017. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education has unveiled its redesigned ORISE website and new ORISE GO app, providing a wide range of resources on the go, a press release said.

The all-new ORISE GO mobile app offers college students, recent graduates, and postdoctoral students a mobile tool to search and apply for hundreds of science, technology, engineering, and math internships, fellowships, and research opportunities at national laboratories and facilities across the United States, the press release said.

The ORISE GO app also provides a platform to remain engaged, connected, and informed during the ORISE experience—from application, to offer, through the appointment, and even as an ORISE alumni, the press release said. [Read more…]

Roane State reports first confirmed case of COVID-19

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RSCC Coffey McNally Building Oak Ridge
The Coffey/McNally Building is pictured at the Oak Ridge campus of Roane State Community College. (Photo by Roane State)

On Thursday, June 18, a Roane State Community College student reported a positive COVID-19 test result to the college. The student has not shown any symptoms and is now quarantining at home, a press release said.

This is the first confirmed case of the virus on any of Roane State’s campuses, the press release said.

The positive case was found during a precautionary health screening required by a state licensing board and was conducted at a local health department, the press release said.

The student was reported to have been inside the Coffey-McNally Building of the Oak Ridge Branch Campus (ORBC) on Tuesday, June 16. Upon learning of the positive test result, the college began the process of closing the building and notifying each person who had been in direct contact with the student.

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Japanese supercomputer displaces ORNL’s Summit as world’s most powerful

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A Japanese supercomputer has displaced the Summit supercomputer, pictured above at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, as the world’s most powerful. Summit is a 200-petaflop IBM system. (Photo courtesy Katie Bethea/ORNL)

Note: This story was last updated at 3 p.m. June 24.

A Japanese supercomputer has displaced the Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as the world’s most powerful and bumped other U.S. and Chinese machines down one spot on a semiannual list of the fastest systems.

Summit had been ranked the world’s most powerful supercomputer on the semiannual TOP500 list since June 2018. It was bumped to number two when the new TOP500 list was released Monday.

The new top system is installed in Kobe, Japan, and it is named Fugaku. In a high-performance test, it performed at 415.5 petaflops. A petaflop is a quadrillion floating-point operations per second.

Fugaku’s performance was 2.8 times better than Summit’s, according to TOP500. Summit delivered 148.8 petaflops on the high-performance test.

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Apartment kitchen fire displaces seven residents

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Seven apartment residents were displaced after a kitchen fire on Wakefield Road on Friday, but no injuries were reported.

The fire was reported at about 8 p.m. Friday.

When crews arrived, the Oak Ridge Fire Department found a kitchen fire in one of six apartments. The fire was quickly extinguished, but there was heavy fire damage to that apartment, the ORFD said.

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