Average Virus Rate Climbs for Fourth Straight Week
New virus case numbers rose by 288 over the last 24 hours, putting the total of all positive cases in Shelby County since March at 37,480. That figure topped 35,000 one week ago.
Total current active cases of the virus — the number people known to have COVID-19 in the county — rose from yesterday to 2,887. The figure peaked above 2,000 just last week. The figure had been as low as 1,299 last month.The new active case count represents 7.7 percent of all cases of the virus reported here since March.
The Shelby County Health Department reported that 3,169 tests were given in the last 24 hours. Tests here now total 550,303.
The latest weekly positivity rate surged more than 1 percent from the week before.The average rate of positive tests for the week of October 18th 8.7 percent. That’s up over the 7.2 percent rate recorded for the week of October 11th. The new weekly average rate is the highest since mid-August, just as cases began to fall from a mid-July spike that had a weekly average positive rate of 12.7 percent. The new weekly positive average marks the fourth straight week that the rate has climbed.
Total deaths rose by one in the last 24 hours and now stand at 571. The average age of those who have died here is 73, according to the health department. The age of the youngest COVID-19 death was 13. The oldest to die from the virus here was 100.
There are 7,922 contacts in quarantine.
