Oak Ridge Today

Oak Ridge Schools staff member tests positive for COVID-19

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Oak Ridge High School
The main entrance at Oak Ridge High School is pictured above.

Note: This story was updated at 5 p.m.

An Oak Ridge Schools staff member who has been at Jefferson Middle School and Oak Ridge High School has tested positive for COVID-19, the school system said Wednesday.

It’s the fifth overall COVID-19 case in Oak Ridge Schools and the fourth in the past two weeks, since July 15.

The schools learned of the positive test result for the staff member on Wednesday. The staff member, who has not been publicly identified, had been at JMS and ORHS last Friday.

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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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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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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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Kroger will require face masks starting Wednesday

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The Kroger Marketplace at Westcott Center in Oak Ridge is pictured above on April 4, 2020. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Kroger stores will require all customers in all stores to wear a face mask starting Wednesday, July 22.

The change is in response to the increase in COVID-19 cases across the country, Kroger said.

“We are taking this extra step now because we recognize additional precautions are needed to protect our country,” the company said.

Citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Kroger said there are three actions that have been scientifically proven to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Besides wearing a face covering, they include frequent hand washing and social distancing (generally staying at least six feet away from people outside your home).

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ORHS band camp instructor tests positive for COVID-19

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Note: This story was updated at 5:45 p.m.

An instructor at the Oak Ridge High School band camp has tested positive for COVID-19, Superintendent Bruce Borchers said in a letter to parents on Wednesday.

The band camp instructor, who worked with multiple students and staff members, had no symptoms before learning of the positive test result Wednesday morning, Borchers said.

The instructor, who isn’t being publicly identified, was immediately separated from the band camp and told to contact the appropriate county health department to report the diagnosis and ask for guidance, Borchers said.

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Walmart, Sam’s Club stores will require face coverings starting Monday

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The Walmart store in Oak Ridge is pictured above on April 4, 2020.

All Walmart and Sam’s Club stores will require face coverings starting Monday, July 20.

The new policy was announced Wednesday by Dacona Smith, chief operating officer of Walmart U.S., and Lance de la Rosa, chief operating officer of Sam’s Club.

They said about 65 percent of their more than 5,000 stores and clubs are located in areas where there is some form of government mandate on face coverings. They said the number and types of face mask mandates has spiked across the country along with the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19.

“To help bring consistency across stores and clubs, we will require all shoppers to wear a face covering starting Monday, July 20,” Smith and de la Rosa said in a press release published online. “This will give us time to inform customers and members of the changes, post signage, and train associates on the new protocols.”

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