Coronavirus cases rising steadily, up 10.3% in the past week.

Coronavirus deaths rising, 35 deaths in the past week.

Five deaths a day.

Of the 5 Benchmarks sorta, kinda used to determine how Knox County will handle managing the coronavirus, all 5 are in the Red.

*** As of December 26, the 7-day average positivity rate was 20.5% (down from 24.4% two weeks ago, up from 15.3% the week of December 5).

Positivity rate preferred to be below 3%.
As of December 12, 2020, Knox County is in the Red Zone and has been since November 8, 2020.

The Knox County Health Department reports 29,119 coronavirus cases and 2,778 probable cases.

That's 2,731 new cases in the past week,
That's a 10.3% increase over one week ago.

There are 138 Knox County COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized.
Two more than a week ago.

There have been 293 deaths in Knox County from COVID-19.

Thirty-five deaths due to COVID-19 in the past week.

That's a 13.6% increase in deaths in the past week (258 as of 12/19, 211 as of 12/12, 186 as of December 5).

Highest jump in deaths in the 45-64 age group, from 31 deaths to 39.

9 in the 18-44 age group (3%)
39 in the 45-64 age group (13%)
72 in the 65-74 age group (25%)
173 in the 75+ age group (59%)

The date displayed for ICU availability is the same as last week, December 15, even though the numbers have changed
As of December 15, 2020 (again), ICU Bed availability is at 7.7% (284 ICU beds total with 22 beds available) .
ICU bed availability is down as compared to a week ago.
(Note, The week of 12/1/2020, ICU bed capacity rose to 284, the week of 9/1/2020, ICU bed capacity was 278, then the week of 9/8/2020, ICU bed capacity was raised to 374, then the week of Sept. 22 ICU bed capacity has been reduced back down to 278.)
(Note, prior to the 8/4/2020 report, ICU bed capacity was 272. It would appear that Knox County hospitals have increased ICU bed capacity by 6 beds.)

The County Health Department has a map with the number of coronavirus cases per zip code.
On December 25, 2020, these zip codes were reported with the most cases:

37918 has the most cases with 2,573 cases (population 44,476) (15.0% increase)
37920 with 2,363 cases (population 39,000) (14.9% increase)
37922 with 2,144 cases (population 41,539) (16.5% increase)
37923 with 1,714 cases (population 30,000) (14.8% increase)
37919 with 1,705 cases (population 28,000) (13.7% increase)
37921 with 1,673 cases (population 28,000) (12.1% increase)
37917 with 1,239 cases (population 27,000) (13.5% increase)
37916 with 1,096 cases (population 12,507) (2.3% increase)

Be careful out there.