Positivity Rates Fall On New Test Reporting
Shelby County added 174 new cases of COVID-19 on test results reported Wednesday morning, the figure was higher than counts before the Labor Day weekend but lower than Tuesday’s total.
Virus numbers are still settling in to the new way the Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) reports testing volume here. The change came yesterday and now includes all tests — even multiples given to a single person — in the total. So, on Monday the figure showed that 272,020 people had been tested. But the figure ballooned to 404,062 total tests given on Tuesday. The report shows 407,852 tests have been given here so far.
The new reporting process changed the weekly positivity rates going back to March, in many cases the figures were reduced. For example, in July’s height of the pandemic (so far), the positivity rate on tests was around 16 percent. With the new testing reporting process, the figure was reduced to 12 percent in number released by the health department Wednesday morning.
The latest weekly positivity rate reported was for the week of August 30th. Before the new reporting process, the figure was 10.6 percent. New figures released today brought the rate down to just 6 percent.
The county’s overall average positive rate for COVID-19 hovered around 10.8 percent for many weeks. Tuesday’s new rate rose to 11.3 percent on the health department website. But the percentage of positive cases here (29,504) of the total tests given here (407,852) is about 7 percent.
The total number of COVID-19 cases here stands at 29,504. The death toll in Shelby County rose by five in last 24 hours to at 429.
The total active number of COVID-19 cases diagnosed in Shelby County is 1,498. Cases active now are 5.1 percent of all virus cases recorded in Shelby County since March. Those known to have the virus now represent around 0.15 percent of Shelby County’s total population. There are 8,275 contacts in quarantine, down from 8,608 reported Tuesday.
