Knox County reports four COVID-19 deaths in the past two days

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) – The Knox County Health Department is reporting two new COVID-19 deaths for the second consecutive day.

The Health Department reported two new deaths and 142 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, a 1.07% increase in the total case count. Two more deaths were also reported on Monday.

KCHD has reported 109 coronavirus-related deaths since the pandemic began in March, 104 of which have happened since July 2. The department reported 19 deaths in August, 26 in September and 20 in October. Four deaths have reported so far in November.

There are 1,302 active cases in Knox County as of Tuesday, 30 fewer than reported on Monday. The inactive case count grew to 12,710 after 175 new inactive cases were reported Tuesday.

Of the 13,441 total confirmed Knox County cases reported since the pandemic began, 475 of them have resulted in hospitalization at any point during their illness. There are 64 Knox County residents currently hospitalized due to COVID-19, two more than reported on Monday.

There are 680 probable cases listed on the Health Department dashboard.

Beginning Sept. 4, KCHD started reporting “inactive” cases instead of “recovered” cases. Inactive cases include those who are 14 days or more beyond their illness onset date or, for asymptomatic cases, their specimen collection date. This is in alignment with the Tennessee Department of Health.

The change led to nearly 1,000 cases being deemed inactive on Sept. 5.

The Health Department also changed how data was categorized based on where cases live. The change led to a decrease of 560 active cases in one day.

On Oct. 1, Charity Menefee, director of communicable and environmental disease and emergency preparedness of the KCHD, said a discrepancy between the Tennessee Department of Health’s use of geocoded, or permanent address, data and KCHD’s jurisdictional data, coupled with a general lag in test collection and reporting identified more than 500 cases as positive after the 14-day active period.

KCHD updates its numbers daily at 11 a.m. Visit covid.knoxcountytn.gov for more information. Press briefings by the Knox County Health Department are on Tuesday and Thursday. Briefings begin at 12:30 p.m.

The Health Department will not be testing for COVID-19 on Tuesday, November 3, but instead will be providing support to the Election Commission. Testing will resume on Wednesday at 9 a.m. at 140 Dameron Avenue.