MOORE COUNTY — According to Saturday’s confirmed COVID-19 numbers released by the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH), Moore County’s total new confirmed COVID-19 cases increased by 19 in the last seven days – from 42 on August 2 to 61 today.
Regionally, Bedford County gained 56 new cases. Coffee County gained 111. Franklin County increased by 40 and Lincoln County gained another 29 cases.
Active cases could trigger school hybrid plan
Of particular importance is the number of active Moore County cases. According to today’s numbers, there are 28 active and 33 recovered cases. This number is important because there are active case triggers in place in the Moore County School System to help Director Moorehead and the School Board decide when it’s appropriate to close Moore County school buildings and transition to remote learning.
As long as the active case count remains below 33 (or less than .5% of the population) students can continue to attend in person classes. Once that number reaches above 32 (or between .5 % and 1%), local schools will move to a hybrid model where half of students will attend school every other week while those not at school continue to learn remotely.
If the number of active cases rises above 65 (or 1%), then all learning will happen remotely. If Moore County sustains it’s new active case rate, students could transition to a hybrid schedule in the next two weeks.
However, on Friday, Director Moorehead stressed that the active cases benchmark is not a state mandate but rather a school board approved threshold that could be revisited.
Hospitalization seems to be stabilizing
After a jump of over 100 new patients hospitalized with COVID-19 the third week in July, the hospitalization rate in Tennessee seems to be stabilizing. After hospitalizing an nearly an additional 2,000 COVID patient is July (286 week one, 369 week two, 471 week three, and 465 week four), the rate increase by a 466 the first week in August.
According to the TDH, there are 338 of 2,030 (or 17 %) of available ICU beds in the state. In a bit a good news, 67% of Tennessee’s ventilators are available as of Saturday. To see complete hospital capacity numbers, click here. To view the state’s COVID statistics site or learn more about rates in individual counties, click here. •
{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.}