COVID cases up, but may have peaked in Anderson County
After a period in which nearly all COVID-19 infections had disappeared in Anderson County, there has been a resurgence lately because of the so-called delta variant, although numbers still are low, County Mayor Terry Frank says.
In a report she posted on her Facebook page on Sunday, Frank said that as of Aug. 26, “our 7-day average of positive cases was 57.6,” which is still less than half of what it was on Dec. 19, 2020 – which was 136.4 new cases per day.
“So, while there is a spiking delta variant, we’re not at a high yet of what we were in 2020,” Frank said in her post.
But she added that the worst might be over, or at least close to being over:
“We don’t know when we will peak for this Delta wave, but numerous reports state the South surge is peaking in August — in other words, we are living in [the] peak period now,” she said. “Arkansas and Louisiana have already started their decline.”
Still, Frank had this cautious outlook:
“I wish I could tell you that COVID will soon be gone,” she said. “But I can’t. I see more variants on the CDC list, and more being monitored by other countries and organizations.
“I don’t say that to scare you — they may be variants that flop, or are even weaker. I don’t want you to be discouraged, or depressed, or angry. But I do want you to take care of yourself.”
Frank also indicated that the delta outbreak was perhaps surprising, coming after the county seemed to have COVID-19 under control.
“When we hit super lows with only one Anderson County case a day reported before the delta variant showed up, we thought the end was here,” she wrote, adding:
“Let’s keep up those best health practices that we learned in the beginning, and like the first wave, we will get through this. I love you and I am praying for you!”
Frank also compared Anderson County’s current COVID case count with those of six other Tennessee counties closest in population to Anderson, which showed this county at the bottom of the pack, with 636 active cases as of Aug. 28. That compared with 997 for Maury County (south of Nashville), 898 in Sevier County, 837 in Greene County, 820 in Hamblen County, 776 in Putnam County, and 748 in Robertson County.
Those numbers are from the state of Tennessee’s COVID-19 website, Frank said.
Anderson County has had a total of 241 hospitalizations and 184 deaths since the pandemic began, the report showed.
Frank also provided some data on how Anderson County stacks up against the state as a whole.
“One of the data snapshots that the state provides looks at each county and our metrics in terms of a percentage of the entire state,” she wrote.
“Anderson County has barely fluctuated in that area — sticking pretty steadily at 1% of all cases statewide, 1% of all hospitalizations statewide, 1.4% of deaths statewide, and 1% of all inactive/recovered [cases] statewide.
“While this number wasn’t super helpful in the beginning, in the long run it has proven an excellent snapshot to see what’s happening and how we are doing.”
She also noted that “92.3% of the COVID positives currently in Tennessee are known as the delta variant.”
No data was provided on current COVID-19 cases in fully vaccinated people versus those who have not been vaccinated.