BBBTV12 Serving Anderson, Roane, and Morgan Counties
Hello, this is Ron Woody, Roane County Executive, with a Monday, February 1st 4:00 pm COVID update. We are starting to see some relief in our numbers of positive cases, but we are still in the double digits.
January had a positivity rate of 18.3%. December’s positivity rate was 21.2%. We have seen a drop at the end of January with our positivity rate being at 14.65%.
Also, 80% of the population has tested with a total of almost 13% being positive of those tested, which is the positivity rate.
Three percent (3%) of Roane County’s population has been vaccinated with both doses, that’s almost 1,500 individuals of our 53,000 population.
Another 2% (two) percent plus has received their first doses.
Doses come in periodically during the week.
The Health Department staff has been working diligently administering the shots, testing, and scheduling appointments.
The County had a new phone system installed last week that should assist in scheduling.
The State has provided two (2) members of the National Guard to also assist in staffing needs. The main issue has been and will continue to be having vaccines. The Health Department is administering the vaccine received.
Roane County is in Phases 1a1 and 1a2 with 75 years and older, and changing this week to 70 years and older.
To put things in perspective, Roane County has 2,653 citizens 80 years and above and 5,300 citizens are ages 70-79.
On average, we are getting about 100-150 doses of the vaccine a day which is enough for 50-75 individuals a day.
At this rate, we have a month or two only on the 70-79-year-old individuals in the absence of more doses by existing vendors, or new doses from a new vendor such as Johnson & Johnson.
Currently, we have had 91 deaths in Roane County associate with Covid-19.
From the State Press Release, Tennessee will begin administering Covid-19 vaccinations to Tennesseans aged 70 and older this week as the state has begun receiving increased allocations of Covid-19 vaccines. Tennesseans aged 70 and up may begin registering for Covid-19 Vaccination tomorrow, February 2.
More information can be found on the phases eligible for vaccination and when eligible, how to register for a vaccine at https://covid19.tn.gov/vaccine_phase/roane-county/ or by calling the hotline at 1-866-442-5301 and/or Health Department at 865-354-1220.
