Weakley County Surpasses 1,000 COVID-19 Cases

BY SABRINA BATES

sabrina@dresdenenterprise.com

WEAKLEY COUNTY (September 14) – As of Monday, September 14, 2020, Weakley County has surpassed 1,000 COVID-19 cases among its residents. Of the 1,030 reported novel coronavirus cases reported in the county since March, only 133 or a little more than 7 percent are considered active cases.

The county has been under a mask mandate in public places since the week before the public school system and University of Tennessee at Martin resumed classes August 17, 2020.

While 21-30-year-olds outpace the number of COVID-19 cases in the county at 204, those ages 11-20 have recorded 166 cases. Only 45 cases have been reported for those ages 0-10 in Weakley County.

As the number of active cases have dropped over the last two weeks, the Weakley County School System announced it would no longer conduct temperature checks of students upon arriving at school. This daily practice was eliminated after it was reported no students were sent home as a result of the temperature/symptom checks since the start of the school year. Weakley County Director of Schools Randy Frazier recently told the School Board parents were being diligent about checking temperatures at home and not sending sick children to school.

The system also eased the “close contact” guidelines after the Centers for Disease Control increased the time for consideration of close contact with someone who is COVID-19 positive from 10 to 15 minutes. That guideline is being used for contact tracing and a recommendation for testing.

The University of Tennessee at Martin provides a daily case count on its website at utm.edu. As of Tuesday, August 15, the university reported 24 active COVID-19 cases in students and one active case of a faculty/staff member.

Weakley Countians are being tested at a rapid rate daily with 195 new tests reportedly conducted Monday, September 14, 2020. There have been 10,494 tests conducted in Weakley County since reporting began in March.

Weakley County has recorded 15 COVID-19-related deaths.

In neighboring counties, Carroll County has also recorded 15 COVID-19-related deaths. There are 762 COVID cases in Carroll, with 131 listed as active. Carroll County has conducted 9,056 tests.

As of Monday, September 14, Obion County recorded 999 cases, with 137 active and a total of 9,513 tests. There are 8 COVID-19-related deaths listed for Obion County.

Henry County has only recorded 560 total COVID-19 cases. As of Monday, there were 70 active cases. The county has recorded 8 COVID-19-related deaths. Henry County been under a countywide mask mandate in public places since August 5. A total of 8,963 tests have been conducted in Henry County.

The Tennessee Department of Health and Tennessee Department of Education provide daily case count information on their websites, which are updated at 2 p.m. Due to technical issues Tuesday, September 15, 2020, case count reports showed Monday's information.