It’s a dreary, rainy, and cold day, but sunshine is coming soon. Use your umbrella until the rain stops. That is a weather report. And a metaphor.
State News:
The state of Tennessee reported 8,251 additional cases of COVID-19 yesterday. This brings the state totals to 428,868 confirmed cases and 44,007 probable cases. 404,597 cases are considered inactive, while 62,633 are active. The seven-day average for cases is 8,303 per day, a new pandemic record.
126 additional COVID-positive patients were added to hospital rolls for the day, bringing the statewide pandemic total to 13,332. The current total for COVID-positive Tennesseans in the hospital is 2,806, a new pandemic record. Of these, 705 are in ICUs, another pandemic record, and 352 are on ventilators, two short of a pandemic record set the previous two days. Hospital bed availability is now 12%, while ICU bed availability is 8%.
For the day, the state reported 74 deaths bringing the total to 5,615 Tennesseans who have died of COVID-19. The seven-day average for deaths dropped by three to 73 deaths per day.
The state reported results for about 44.6 thousand tests for the day, bringing the pandemic total to almost 5.1 million tests given. After two days of very high test totals, this remains in the high average range for a single day. The state reported 18.17% of the tests were positive. Johns Hopkins University reports a seven-day average of 17.3% for the state.
Local News:
After three consecutive days with more than 500 new cases each day, the Knox County Health Department is reporting 472 today. It joins the previous three to collectively represent our four highest days of the pandemic. After only 16 days, the county has reported 6,235 new cases. As of yesterday, this month has now produced more cases than any other month during the pandemic and it needed only 15 days to do so (November, 5,364).
The new cases bring the county totals to 24,736 confirmed and 1,646 probable cases. Of these, 21,874 are considered inactive and 4,274, just off yesterday’s record, are considered active. 128 COVID-positive Knox County residents are currently in the hospital, bringing the total to 685 hospitalized at some point during the pandemic.
The Knox County Health Department also reported an additional 11 deaths today, a new high for a reporting day and the first time deaths have gone over 10 for a day in the county. Of these eleven new deaths, 5 were in the 64-75 age group and 6 were in the 75+ age group. The age breakdown for deaths in the county is now 8 (ages 18-44), 30 (ages 45-64), 56 (ages 65-74) and 140 (ages 75 and up). There have now been a total of 67 deaths in Knox County this month, taking 16 days to surpass the record of 62 set last month.
The state reports the Knox County positive test result rate as 19.9%.
Benchmarks, set to be updated today, had not be updated at the time of the publication of this article.
Knox County Schools News:
It appears, with all students on virtual learning, that the county is simply letting active cases and quarantine/isolations age out, while not adding any to the totals. Today’s numbers all declined, I am assuming, as a result. The system reports 188 active cases (down from 194), and 1,925 in quarantine or isolation (down from 2,259).