Oak Ridge Today

Young patients have largest number of COVID cases in Anderson County

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

The largest number of COVID-19 cases in Anderson County is among young patients, with the 11-20 age group now reporting the most cases of any age group. (Graph by Oak Ridge Today using information from Tennessee Department of Health)

The largest number of COVID-19 cases in Anderson County is among young patients, with the 11-20 and 21-30 age groups now reporting the most cases of any age groups.

For more than a week, the case count among the 11-20 age group has been higher than the case count among the 21-30 age group.

That’s a change since earlier in the pandemic, when the 21-30 age group usually had the most cases of any age group, followed by several older age groups. It’s not clear what accounts for the change.

The 21-30 age group still has a high number of cases, and that age group still has close to the same number of cases as the 11-20 age group, according to information published by the Tennessee Department of Health. And on some recent days at least in the past month, the total number of cases among the 21-30 age group has been higher than the number among the 11-20 age group.

The two groups together now account for about one-third of COVID-19 cases in Anderson County.

[Read more…]

Updated: Anderson, Roane report record increases in COVID cases

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

A daily snapshot of COVID-19 cases in Anderson County on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2020, 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 4:45 p.m.

Anderson and Roane counties reported record-high one-day increases in COVID-19 cases on Wednesday as the pandemic appears to have returned to or surpassed July levels. Anderson County set another record on Thursday.

Roane County reported 41 new cases on Wednesday, and Anderson County reported 40.

Update: Anderson County reported another record increase on Thursday, 46 new cases. It’s the second day of a record increase in COVID-19 cases in Anderson County.

The previous high in Anderson County was 39 on July 23. Until now, July had been the worst month of the pandemic.

The previous high in Roane County had been 34 on October 23. It followed an earlier peak of 33 on July 23.

Oak Ridge is in both Anderson and Roane counties. Most of the city’s residents live in Anderson County, but the west end of the city is in Roane County.

[Read more…]

COVID positivity rates high in Anderson, surrounding counties

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

COVID-19 data for Anderson County as reported by the Tennessee Department of Health on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020. (Image courtesy Tennessee Department of Health)

The COVID-19 positivity rates in Anderson County and surrounding counties have been high recently, and one additional death and five more hospitalizations were reported in Anderson County in two days this week.

The positivity rate in Anderson County was close to 10 percent on Thursday and higher than 10 percent in five of the seven surrounding counties. It was highest in Union County, where the positivity rate was 18.4 percent.

The 14th death in Anderson County was reported by the Tennessee Department of Health on Thursday, and the five new hospitalizations were reported on Wednesday and Thursday.

The positivity rate measures the percentage of new daily tests that return positive results out of all the new daily tests. A higher positivity rate means more people are testing positive out of those who are tested each day.

[Read more…]

Smith estimates 600-700 COVID cases in Oak Ridge zip code

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Image courtesy Ellen Smith

Oak Ridge City Council member Ellen Smith has estimated there could have been between 600 to 700 cases of COVID-19 in the city’s main zip code through October 14.

Oak Ridge’s main zip code is 37830.

The Tennessee Department of Health does not publish the number of COVID-19 cases by city or zip code. It does publish the number of COVID-19 cases by county, and it publishes trend maps by zip code, although it doesn’t give the precise number of cases per zip code.

Smith has analyzed the data and the maps to come up what she calls her best-guess estimate: 600 to 700 cases. That’s a bit more than 2 percent of the city’s population.

[Read more…]

Updated: COVID-19 cases appear to be trending back up in Anderson County

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

A graph shows confirmed new cases of COVID-19 in Anderson County through Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020. (Image courtesy Tennessee COVID-19 Case Tracking Coronavirus-19 Outbreak Response Experts (CORE-19) at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville)

Note: This story was updated at 3 p.m. Oct. 16

After peaking in July and falling in August, the average number of new COVID-19 cases per day appears to be trending back up in Anderson County.

In the past two weeks, the seven-day average of new cases in Anderson County was more than 15 per day, according to calculations by Oak Ridge Today. The county had 100 new cases between Friday and Wednesday.

Twice in the past three days, the number of new cases reported in one day has been 30 or more. The Tennessee Department of Health reported 30 new cases of COVID-19 in Anderson County on Monday. Thirty-five more new cases were reported on Wednesday.

That’s a level generally not seen since late July, the worst month of the pandemic so far. The highest number of cases reported in the county in one day was 39 on July 23 and again on July 27.

The average number of new cases per day fell in August after the July peak and then appeared to generally plateau for a month or so. But now the overall trend seems to be one of rising new case numbers, especially since an early September low.

[Read more…]

New daily COVID-19 case average remains near or above 10

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

A graph shows confirmed new cases of COVID-19 in Anderson County through Friday, Oct. 9, 2020. (Image courtesy Tennessee COVID-19 Case Tracking Coronavirus-19 Outbreak Response Experts (CORE-19) at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville)

The average number of new cases of COVID-19 per day has remained near or above 10 in Anderson County for more than a month.

That’s down from the peak average of about 20 new cases per day or more in late July. But it remains higher than the averages for March, when the pandemic began, and for April, May, June, and early July.

On Tuesday each week, Oak Ridge Today calculates the seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases per day in Anderson County for the previous week.

That seven-day average passed an average of 10 new cases per day in early to mid-July before peaking at 24.7 new cases per day in late July. The average then fell in August before hitting a plateau at about 10 in mid-August. It has remained there, or close to it, with one exception since then.

[Read more…]

After falling in August, new COVID cases have plateaued

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

A graph shows confirmed new cases of COVID-19 in Anderson County through Friday, Sept. 25, 2020. (Image courtesy Tennessee COVID-19 Case Tracking Coronavirus-19 Outbreak Response Experts (CORE-19) at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville)

After falling in August, the average number of new daily cases of COVID-19 appears to have plateaued in Anderson County.

But there is at least one complication in the data. More than 30 cases reported in Anderson County in mid-September had been assigned to a different county earlier, or the the county of residence had not yet been reported, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.

So, for at least a few days, the data seemed to include an unusually high number of new cases per day (20-29 new cases per day on September 10 and 11, compared to one to six new cases per day other days that week).

Since then, though, the average number of new cases per day has remained about the same, in a range between 11.1 and 13.7 new cases per day. Fourteen new cases were reported Saturday.

The seven-day average number of new cases in Anderson County had fallen to 5.4 per day on September 1, according to calculations by Oak Ridge Today. That was a low that the county hadn’t had since early July, before new case growth peaked later that month.

But since then it’s gone back up to an average of more than 10 new cases per day, where it appears to have plateaued. It’s not clear why.

Anderson County has reported five deaths due to COVID-19 this month. That’s more than one-third of the 13 deaths reported in the county since the pandemic began March 20. Two of the deaths were reported by state health officials in the past few days, on Thursday and Friday.

[Read more…]

New daily COVID case average falls to early July level

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

A graph shows confirmed new cases of COVID-19 in Anderson County through Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020. (Image courtesy Tennessee COVID-19 Case Tracking Coronavirus-19 Outbreak Response Experts (CORE-19) at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville)

The daily average of new COVID-19 cases in Anderson County the past week fell to a level last seen in early July, about five new cases per day.

Last week’s average of 5.4 new cases per day is about a 40 percent drop from the average nine new cases reported per day during the previous week.

It’s the third straight week of a decline in the average number of new cases per day in Anderson County.

Although it’s falling, the seven-day average remains higher than it was in late June, before the case growth started to accelerate in the county.

The highest seven-day average, as calculated by Oak Ridge Today, was in late July, when Anderson County averaged more than 24 new cases of COVID-19 per day. July appears to have been the worst month of the pandemic so far.

[Read more…]

New COVID case average fluctuates, hits recent daily lows

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

A graph shows confirmed new cases of COVID-19 in Anderson County through Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2020. (Image courtesy Tennessee COVID-19 Case Tracking Coronavirus-19 Outbreak Response Experts (CORE-19) at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville)

The daily average of new COVID-19 cases in Anderson County this past week was about the same as it was two weeks ago, roughly nine new cases per day.

But the number of new daily cases fell to three and two on Monday and Tuesday. Those are the lowest numbers of new daily cases in Anderson County since early July.

There have been two more deaths in Anderson County reported due to COVID-19 in the past week. Eight people have now died from COVID-19 in the county, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.

And there have been two more hospitalizations. A total of 34 patients have been hospitalized for COVID-19 since the pandemic began in Anderson County on March 20.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in the county rose to 841 on Tuesday.

[Read more…]

New COVID-19 daily case average drops again in Anderson County

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

A graph shows confirmed new cases of COVID-19 in Anderson County through Saturday, Aug. 15, 2020. (Image courtesy Tennessee COVID-19 Case Tracking Coronavirus-19 Outbreak Response Experts (CORE-19) at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville)

Although it has climbed back up some, the average number of new cases of COVID-19 per day in Anderson County fell by about 50 percent in the week that ended Tuesday.

It was the second consecutive week of a smaller number of new cases per day, on average, of COVID-19 in Anderson County.

It’s not clear what led to the drop in new cases per day or whether it might be related to the more widespread use of masks, including at businesses that started requiring them in the second half of July.

In the week that ended Tuesday, August 11, there was an average of 9.7 new cases of COVID-19 per day in Anderson County. That’s a level not seen since the first half of July, after the growth in COVID-19 cases had started to accelerate in the county.

The average 9.7 new cases per day last week was about 50 percent fewer cases per day than the average 18.6 new cases reported each day in the previous week, the seven-day period that ended Tuesday, August 4.

But since Tuesday, the average number of cases per day has climbed back up a bit to 12.2.

The highest average number of new cases per day, as tracked by Oak Ridge Today, was in the week ending Tuesday, July 28, when there were about 24.7 new cases per day. July appears to have been the worst month of the pandemic in Anderson County so far.

[Read more…]

15 employees, 1 patient test positive for COVID at NHC

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

NHC HealthCare of Oak Ridge is pictured above in August 2020.

Fifteen employees and one patient have tested positive for COVID-19 at NHC HealthCare, a nursing home in Oak Ridge.

NHC reported the positive test results and outcomes on its website.

The nursing home said the one patient who tested positive has recovered, and five of the 15 employees have recovered.

The patient was not hospitalized, NHC HealthCare said, and the nursing home has not reported any deaths among the 15 employees and one patient who tested positive.

[Read more…]

Total of 21 residents, two staff tested positive for COVID at The Groves

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

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)

A total of 21 residents and two staff members tested positive for COVID-19 at The Groves at Oak Ridge, and two residents have died, an executive said Wednesday.

“Our thoughts and prayers go to their loved ones,” said Hollie Bailey, a registered nurse and regional director of operations and clinical services for Navion Senior Solutions. The Groves, an assisted living center on Emory Valley Road, is part of Navion Senior Solutions.

Bailey said 19 of the 21 residents have recovered from COVID-19, and three were set to be discharged from a hospital this week for physical therapy and strengthening before returning to The Groves.

The two staff members who tested positive have both recovered, Bailey said.

[Read more…]