COVID-19 count up to 371 as Roane, Scott report first cases

Posted at 3:19 pm March 21, 2020
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Note: This story was last updated at 2 p.m. March 22.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Tennessee increased to 371 on Saturday, up from 228 on Friday, as Roane County and Scott County reported their first cases.

That’s a 63 percent increase from Friday to Saturday. It followed a 48 percent increase from Thursday to Friday and a 57 percent increase from Wednesday to Thursday.

Anderson County reported its first case of the contagious respiratory illness on Thursday.

The list published by the Tennessee Department of Health at 2 p.m. Central time on Saturday included two cases in Scott County and one case in Roane County. No additional information was immediately available about the three cases.

Cases in Knox County and Campbell County were reported earlier.

There are now COVID-19 cases in 33 of Tennessee’s 95 counties. The largest number of cases is still in Davidson County, which includes Nashville. There are 140 cases there, or about 38 percent of the state’s total. That’s up from 101 cases on Friday.

The next highest number of cases is still in Williamson County south of Nashville, where there are 47 cases. Sumner County northeast of Nashville has 11 cases.

The three Nashville-area counties have 198 cases total, or about 53 percent of the state’s total.

Shelby County, which includes Memphis in West Tennessee, jumped from four cases on Friday to 40 on Saturday.

The number of cases in Knox County has increased to four. There are now two cases in Campbell County. Campbell, Knox, Roane, and Scott counties are adjacent to Anderson County.

Two cases have been reported in Cumberland County, which includes Crossville and is west of Roane County.

Putnam County, which includes Cookeville between Knoxville and Nashville and is west of Cumberland County, reported five cases, up from zero the day before.

It’s not clear if the increased case counts are due to the number of cases increasing or due to increased testing.

The largest number of cases is still among patients who are 21 to 30 years of age. There are 122 cases among that age group, or about 33 percent of the total.

There are 59 cases (16 percent of the total) in the 31- to 40-year-old age group and 60 cases (also 16 percent) in the 41- to 50-year-old age group.

The first death in Tennessee due to coronavirus was reported in Nashville on Friday. The patient was a 73-year-old man with underlying health conditions who died due to complications from COVID-19, according to ABC News affiliate News Channel 9.

The Oak Ridge City Council will have a special meeting at noon Monday to discuss how the city is handling and addressing the new coronavirus, or COVID-19.

Here is the county breakdown of COVID-19 cases in Tennessee as of Saturday, March 21: