Oak Ridge Today

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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Anderson County has 219 COVID-19 cases, with 101 active

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Anderson County now has more than 200 total COVID-19 cases, and more than 100 are active. The chart above by the Tennessee Department of Health shows new cases in Anderson County through Tuesday, July 14, 2020.

Anderson County now has more than 200 total COVID-19 cases, and more than 100 are active.

The county reported 219 total COVID-19 cases and 101 active cases on Tuesday. Active cases are total cases minus recoveries and deaths.

The number of total cases has more than doubled since July 2, less than two weeks ago, and the number of active cases has about tripled since then.

Total cases measure how many residents have been infected. Active cases measure patients who have survived and might still have symptoms or are within 21 days of their first diagnosis.

The hospitalizations in Anderson County have not increased as fast as the new cases. On July 2, there were 10 total hospitalizations in Anderson County due to COVID-19. On Tuesday, the Tennessee Department of Health reported there have been 14 total hospitalizations in Anderson County. It’s not clear how many of those patients remain in the hospital.

The number of deaths has remained unchanged since June 4, when the second death due to COVID-19 was reported in Anderson County.

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Anderson County reports 23 new COVID cases in one day, a record

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Graph by Tennessee Department of Health

Anderson County reported 23 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, another record just four days after the previous high, and the state added a record number of new daily cases, reporting more than 2,000 new daily cases for the first time.

Anderson County, which has about 77,000 residents, added another 12 cases on Thursday. That pushed the total number of cases in the county up to 178, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.

The case growth in the county seems to have accelerated in the past eight days. During that time, the county has added 73 cases. That’s a 70 percent increase in cases in roughly a week. A week ago, on July 2, Anderson County had 105 cases.

The number of active cases in the county has jumped again. It had risen to 66 on Sunday before falling significantly on Monday and Tuesday. But it rose by about 30 on Wednesday and Thursday, and the number of active cases was at 86 on Thursday.

That’s more than double the 32 active cases reported in the county a week ago, on July 2. (Active cases are calculated by subtracting deaths and recoveries from total cases.) A month ago, the number of active cases was in the single digits.

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AC reports 37 new COVID cases in 3 days as active cases double

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Anderson County reported 18 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, July 4, 2020, the largest one-day increase. (Graph by Tennessee Department of Health)

Note: This story was last updated at 5:30 p.m.

Anderson County reported 37 new COVID-19 cases in the past three days as the number of active cases more than doubled.

The largest increase in the past three days was on Saturday, when 18 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Anderson County. That was the largest one-day increase in the county, a 15.5 percent daily jump.

There were 11 new cases reported on Friday and eight new cases reported on Sunday.

The number of active cases in the county more than doubled from 32 on Thursday to 66 on Sunday. (Active cases are calculated by subtracting recoveries and deaths from total cases.)

Anderson County now has 142 total cases, with two deaths and 74 recoveries, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.

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Governor Lee grants county mayors the authority to require masks

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Bill Lee

Note: This story was updated at 9:05 p.m.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Friday granted county mayors in most of Tennessee to require or recommend face masks.

The governor’s order, Executive Order 54, is meant to allow county mayors to respond to significant increases in COVID-19 cases.

Tennessee’s densely populated areas, including the Memphis and Nashville areas, continue to have many of the state’s COVID-19 cases.

But local governments want more flexibility to respond to rising cases, and that includes “setting stronger expectations around masks,” Lee said in a press release Friday evening.

“This targeted approach ensures we protect both lives and livelihoods and safely keep our economy open in Tennessee,” the governor said. “We encourage every Tennessean across the state to use a face covering or mask, make sure to socially distance, and wash hands frequently.”

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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 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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Tennessee reports new daily high in COVID-19 cases

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A chart of daily new COVID-19 cases in Tennessee through Saturday, June 20, 2020. (Chart courtesy Ken Mayes, used with permission)

Note: This story was last updated at 12:30 p.m.

Tennessee reported 1,188 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, a new daily high, and the state passed 500 confirmed deaths on Saturday, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.

The new high in daily new cases occurred in the same week that the state reported what are now its third- and sixth-highest totals of new cases in one day: 885 on Sunday, June 14, and 726 on Monday, June 15.

Of the 1,188 new cases reported Friday, the state said 1,181 were new confirmed cases and seven were new probable cases.

The previous daily high was 1,156 on May 1. That was reported after a large number of new cases was diagnosed at Turner Trousdale Correctional Center, according to Nashville investigative reporter Phil Williams.

It’s not clear why there was a new high on Friday. There was a large number of new tests reported, 15,176. But the rate of positive results, 7.8 percent (comparing total new cases to total new tests), was in the range of the rate for the rest of the week, when the positive rate ranged between 4.9 percent and 8.8 percent.

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COVID-19 cases pass 30,000 in Tennessee

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Graph courtesy Ken Mayes (used with permission)

Note: This story was updated at 11:20 a.m.

The number of COVID-19 cases passed 30,000 in Tennessee on Sunday. The number of deaths is approaching 500, and the number of active cases in the state is over 10,000.

There are now 65 total cases (confirmed and probable) and 20 active cases in Anderson County. Those are both significant increases.

Across the state, there were 31,612 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 472 confirmed deaths on Tuesday, according to the Tennessee Department of Health. There were another 218 probable cases and another 21 probable deaths.

The number of cases in Anderson County appears to be generally increasing more rapidly. Through Friday, June 5, the Anderson County cases had been slowly climbing a case or two at time, and some days there were no new cases. But that seems to have changed around June 6. The case count climbed from 42 on Friday, June 5, to 50 on Tuesday, June 9. It rose to 60 on Monday, June 15, and it was 65 on Tuesday, June 16, the Tennessee Department of Health said.

The number of active cases in the county has been increasing as well. It had been in the range of five to eight active cases. It increased to 11 on Tuesday, June 9. On Tuesday, June 16, there were 20 active cases in Anderson County, according to health department data (65 total cases and 45 recovered).

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COVID-19 cases pass 20,000 in Tennessee

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Graph by Ken Mayes (used with permission)

The number of COVID-19 cases in Tennessee passed 20,000 on Sunday.

The Tennessee Department of Health reported 20,145 confirmed cases on Sunday, with 336 deaths and 12,837 recoveries since the first case was reported in the state in early March.

It was a 1.8 percent daily increase in the number of new cases. During the past two weeks, the daily percentage increase has ranged from 0.6 percent to 3.7 percent.

The number of new cases reported in Tennessee each day has ranged between and 100 and 623. The number of new cases reported Sunday was 356.

The number of deaths reported per day has ranged between two fatalities and 14 the past two weeks. Seven deaths were reported on Sunday.

The doubling time in the number of cases—the amount of time it took to go from 10,000 cases to 20,000 cases—was 26 days. For deaths, it was about 32 days (166 deaths on April 22 and 336 on Sunday). That’s a longer doubling time than reported earlier in the pandemic in Tennessee.

The seven-day average of the percentage increase in new cases in Tennessee had dropped from 2.41 percent on May 12 to 1.79 percent on May 20, but it climbed back up to 2.11 percent on Sunday.

It’s not clear what impact, if any, the expiration of the “stay at home” order in April and the re-opening of businesses last month and this month have had on the increase in the number of cases.

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