For three straight days Tipton County’s number of confirmed cases has been 83.
Though the county averaged two new cases per day, an outbreak at the Mason prison caused the number of cases to increase from 56 on Sunday.
The number of tests completed for Tipton County residents – the state attributes its positives to the county of residence – increased by only 10 from Tuesday. It’s not yet known how many tests from the Saturday’s surge event have been completed.
In his daily briefing, Gov. Bill Lee said he expects the numbers of cases to increase due to surge testing, which is happening again for the next two weekends.
How did he decide to re-open the state?
He plans to begin re-opening “as many things as we can” in 89 of of the state’s 95 counties next week (the remaining six counties are metropolitan counties whose mayors are making decisions about re-opening).
Even though businesses may be opening again in a matter of days, Lee continues to stress the importance of social distancing.
“Virtually ever indicator of success in containing COVID-19 shows that your efforts have been working,” he said. “This isn’t an indication that we can slack off, but it does give us a path to move toward doing some of the things that we did before but in a new way that will incorporate social distancing in our daily lives.”
He said the federal guidance for phased re-opening has “largely informed the state’s path moving forward.”
That guidance uses three buckets of data, which include symptoms, case data and hospitalization.
In terms of symptoms, they’re looking for a downward trajectory of flu-like and COVID-like symptoms. Emergency departments across the state have reported a decline in both, Lee said.
With case data, the state is looking for a downward trajectory of documented cases over a 14-day period. The last 19 days, according to Lee and Tennessee Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey, has shown a decline in new cases statewide.
The state has also analyzed hospital capacity to determine whether or not they could treat patients without crisis care or relying on surge capacity. To date, there have been 775 hospitalized at some point in their illness.
Antibody testing was also a factor and Lee said the state expects to begin conducting those tests in the coming weeks as they become more widely available.
Information about what businesses will open and when has not yet been communicated.
What are the numbers today?
Confirmed cases: 83 (no increase since Monday)
Average increase in confirmed cases per day: 2.5
Testing
Tipton Countians tested: 994; this does not include testing from Saturday’s surge testing event and is only 10 higher than Tuesday
Number negative: 911
Need to get tested? Tipton has six testing sites.
Recovery and hospitalization
Number of Tipton Countians recovered: 38, an increase of four from Monday
Number hospitalized at Baptist-Tipton: 0
With 83 confirmed cases and 38 reported recoveries, this means there are at least 45 active cases of COVID-19 in Tipton County.
Author: Echo Day
Echo Day is an award-winning journalist, photographer and designer. She is currently The Leader's managing editor.
