Another COVID case in OR schools; numbers continue to climb

Another Oak Ridge Schools employee has tested positive for COVID-19, according to Superintendent Dr. Bruce Borchers.

Officials were informed of the positive test results on Wednesday morning and quickly began notifying parents. The unidentified staff member spent time at both Jefferson Middle School and at Oak Ridge High School last Friday. That individual had not been back at either facility since Friday, according to school leaders, who say that the staffer is already in voluntary quarantine and received word of their positive test on Wednesday morning.
Borchers says that all of the areas where the staff member spent time last Friday have been cleaned since then, and that all staff members and their families who may have had contact with that person have been notified of a potential exposure.

As Oak Ridge Today points out, this is the fifth overall COVID-19 case in Oak Ridge Schools, and the fourth in the past two weeks, since July 15.
Some Oak Ridge students returned to school Wednesday, and the rest, including students at Jefferson Middle School went back to class today. (July 30th, 2020)

That news came on the same day that the Tennessee Department of Health announced that the state had passed a couple of grim milestones, as there are now over 100,000 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19 in Tennessee (100,822 as of the Wednesday update), and that over 1000 people have died as a result of complications of COVID-19 (1020 as of the Wednesday update. Find the latest data here.

Locally on Wednesday, Anderson County reported 36 new cases, bringing the total since the pandemic began to 536, with 271 cases listed as active, compared to 260 recoveries. An additional death was also reported in Anderson County Wednesday, bringing the total number of fatalities to five.

Campbell County officials reported eight new cases on Wednesday, bringing the total to 160, with 85 cases active and 74 recoveries. One person has died as a result of the virus in Campbell County.

In Roane County, another 21 cases were reported on Wednesday, bringing their total to 294. Of those, 124 people have recovered, there are 169 active cases, and one person has died