Moore gains 32 new COVID cases in first week of September

This graphic shows that the majority of hospitalizations in Tennessee from the Delta variant are among the unvaccinated and that the majority of hospitalized vaccinated patients have underlying immune compromise. Moore County continues to have the lowest vaccination rate in the state. (*Graphic Courtney of Vanderbilt Health*)

LOCAL HEALTH NEWS — According to the newest Tennessee Department of Health numbers released at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Moore County gained 32 new, active COVID-19 cases in the first week in September. There are currently 57 active cases in the county. Our full vaccination rate increased to 21.3 percent but we remain the lowest vaccination rate in the state.

We gained 146 new cases in the month of August. Our total number of cases since the state began recording stats in March 2020 is 1,251 total cases including 19 deaths and 18 hospitalizations.

Moore County reports the highest daily new cases when adjusted for population. Other regional rankings are: #4 Bedford County, #39 Giles County, #47 Coffee County, #49 Franklin County, #51 Lincoln County, and #54 Grundy County. {To view all state stats provided by COVID Act Now click here.}

Regionally, Grundy County reports the highest infection rate at 1.01 followed by Franklin (1.00), Bedford (.98), Coffee (.97), and Lincoln (.96). Moore County currently has the lowest infection rate in the state at .65. Infection rate refers to the estimated number of new people each COVID-positive person will infect.

Grundy County also reports the highest regional positive test rate at 45.8 percent — meaning nearly one out of every two tests in Grundy County comes back positive. A higher percent positive rate suggests higher transmissions and that there are likely more people with coronavirus in the community who haven’t been tested yet. Regionally other rates are Bedford (31.5%), Lincoln (27.3%), Franklin (25.9%), and Coffee (21.3%). Moore County reports a 16.4 percent positive test rate meaning nearly one in every five tests are positive.

On Tuesday, Tennessee became the state with the highest daily reported cases per capita. Cases have declined 10 percent in the U.S. overall but increased 18 percent in our state in the last seven days. Our state also set a record for COVID hospitalizations for the seventh day straight on Tuesday. According to Health Department data, 3,693 patients are now hospitalized with COVID including 1,034 in the ICU and 723 on ventilators. •

{The Lynchburg Times is the only independently owned and operated newspaper in Lynchburg. We cover Metro Moore County government, Jack Daniel’s Distillery, Nearest Green Distillery, Tims Ford State Park, Motlow State Community College, Moore County High School, Moore County Middle School, Lynchburg Elementary, Raider Sports, plus regional and state news.}