This past holiday season, COVID-19 was an unwelcome guest at all our festive gatherings. January’s trends indicate a rise in cases, but also a rise in vaccination rates. Here is a simplified breakdown of the most recent data from last month.
All data was sourced from the Knox County Health Department.The data below was last updated on Jan. 29, 2022, and may also include state-wide statistics from the Tennessee Department of Health.
Active Cases
There were 13,809 active cases at the end of January. Cases rose sharply after Christmas and New Year’s Day, with a peak of approximately 200 new cases per 100,000 people by mid-January.
The seven-day and 14-day trends at the end of the month indicated the rate of new infections was slowing down, although cases continued to rise through the end of the month and into the first week of February.
Cases amongst school-aged children — five to 17 years old — appeared to be decreasing after a small rise after Knox County Schools returned to session.
Testing
COVID-19 testing rates began to increase after New Year’s, nearly tripling from 5,500 tests the last week of 2021 to almost 15,000 tests by Jan. 22. Coinciding with the increase of testing was an increase in positive tests.
By Jan. 22, this was almost half of all tests, with a seven-day average of 46.27%. Positive results peaked on Jan. 20, where 51.37% of tests came back positive.
Hospitalizations
Acute care hospitals in Knox County are seeing an increase in COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization. However, both ICU admittance and ventilator use remain steady.
Only one ICU bed and only thirty non-ICU floor beds were free by the end of January. Important to note is that availability statistics only represent beds that are adequately staffed.
Knox County does have an additional surge capacity of beds and ventilators, but that does not imply the ability to fully staff and support those additional patients.
Hospitals across East Tennessee are struggling to cope with the latest surge of cases. In a joint statement, several East Tennessee hospitals requested those experiencing only mild symptoms to not come to the emergency room.
Deaths
Deaths appeared to increase by the end of the data-reporting window, jumping from a range of one to three deaths a day to seven on Jan. 23 before falling to one on Jan. 29.
COVID-related deaths remain relatively infrequent after peaking in the fall. September and October of 2021 represented the greatest rates of COVID-19 deaths in Knox County, peaking at 13 on Sept. 9.
Vaccinations
Vaccination rates are on the rise. Almost 63% of Knox County residents have received at least one dose, and about 59% of residents were fully vaccinated. State-wide, 1.3 million Tennesseans have received a booster dose.
Vaccines remain widely available across the state, and many providers no longer require appointments.
