Knox County's coronavirus benchmarks - which are visual cues representing the community's response to the coronavirus pandemic - are unchanged from last week with two reds, two yellows and one green.
New COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to be red. Regional hospital capacity and testing continue to be yellow. Only contact tracing capability remained green.
"This (case growth) is a concerning trend and further reiterates that the virus is still present in Knox County and is increasing at a high rate," Charity Menefee, director of emergency preparedness for the Knox County Health Department, said Wednesday.
The update comes after a month of worsening COVID-19 trends, both locally and statewide. In the past week, 1,018 residents of Knox County were confirmed to have COVID-19 bringing the total cases to 3,533. This means that almost one third of all cases that have ever been detected were detected over the past week. It is the largest weekly increase so far during the pandemic.
In the past month, 22 people have died of COVID-19, bringing the total to 27. This means that within the past month Knox County has seen a 440% increase in the number of deaths when compared to the rest of the pandemic.
"The trend has not started to go back down or even level off. So we are concerned about that, absolutely," said Menefee.
She stressed that full community buy-in is needed now to slow the surge, in public spaces and private ones.
"We can't policy our way out of what people are doing in their backyards and with their friends and families at birthday parties." she said. She said masks should be used even in homes when friends and family members get together.
To bolster its green benchmark on contact tracing, the Knox County Health Department announced it has added 39 people to its contact tracing team after the department brought in newly trained employees and volunteers.
Knox County Health Department gathers the data and determines the benchmarks with input from community partners like hospital administrators. The county uses a traffic light rating system — green for good, yellow for caution and red for worrisome — to measure new cases, testing, contact tracing capability, regional hospital capacity and deaths.
The Knox County Board of Health will meet tonight to discuss the local situation and recommendations of federal officials. The Board so far has opted only to issue an indoor mask mandate but may issue other orders to regulate the local COVID-19 response.
Earlier this month, the county was visited by federal officials who were concerned by Knox's worsening COVID-19 case counts. The Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan watchdog organization, leaked White House documents that put Tennessee on a "red list" for COVID-19. Knox, Sevier, Davidson and Shelby counties were identified as among the top counties for case growth in the state.
On Monday, Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House Coronavirus Task Force visited Tennessee to urge the state to close bars and limit restaurant capacity. Birx said she traveled to Tennessee because the state teeters on a precipice from which other Southern states had already fallen.
Moments later Gov. Bill Lee said he had no plans to follow Dr. Brix's advice. Lee maintains authority over the health departments in 89 of the state’s 95 counties, and only mayors in a few metropolitan areas have the power to shutter businesses without his support. Knox County is among the six counties allowed to make its own rules, and its authority overrides that of Knoxville city officials.
State officials are encouraging Tennessee's school districts to reopen with in-person classes — including calling for quarantine periods for those with coronavirus symptoms, health and safety supplies for teachers, and millions in grant money to help fund technology.
"Make no mistake, extended time away from the classroom is harmful for children," Gov. Bill Lee said at a Tuesday news conference. "We fully support reopening our schools with in-person learning as the best option. Planned delays should be reserved for the most extreme situations."
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The Link LonkJuly 30, 2020 at 12:19AM
https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/health/2020/07/29/knox-county-coronavirus-benchmarks-unchanged-2-red-warnings/5534436002/
Knox County's coronavirus benchmarks show two red warnings after 'concerning' surge - Knoxville News Sentinel
https://news.google.com/search?q=Red&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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