Virus Cases Continue Post-Labor-Day Climb
Virus numbers continue to rise here this week, showing a pretty plain connection to increased transmission during the Labor Day weekend holiday nearly two weeks ago.
New cases counts from Wednesday morning were 293, the highest that figure has been in many weeks. Total current active cases of the virus surged, too, to 1,599. That figure dipped to 1,399 recently.
The new testing figures remain high. The Shelby County Health Department now reports the total number of tests given, not just how many individuals have been tested. The figure rose from 407,852 tests given as of Wednesday morning to 413,586 Thursday morning, a difference of 5,734.
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 numbers 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 Wednesday 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. Wednesday’s new rate rose to 11.4. But the percentage of positive cases here (29,797) of the total tests given here (413,586) is about 7.2 percent.
The total number of COVID-19 cases here stands at 29,797. The death toll in Shelby County rose by five in last 24 hours to at 434.
There are 8,275 contacts in quarantine.
