Sat
May 23 2020
06:26 am

From reports dated as of May 22, 2020.
There has been a steady increase in coronavirus (covid-19) cases in Tennessee.

According to the TN Dept. of Health, there are 19,394 cases in TN and 315 deaths.
That is an additional 2,725 cases in one week and an additional 28 reported deaths.

368,170 residents have been tested.
That is an additional 65,853 tests in the past week.

5.3% of TN residents tested for the coronavirus have tested positive for the coronavirus.
5.3% of the 6.89 million people estimated to live in TN have been tested for the coronavirus.

On Thursday, 5/21/2020, 175 new coronavirus cases were reported in Rhea County.
Rhea County is West/Southwest of Knoxville, along 1-75. Dayton, TN, is the county seat.

The Tennessee Health Department confirmed that the cluster is happening within a group of migrant workers on a farm in the county, although officials did not name the specific farm.

Be careful out there.

bizgrrl's picture

Testing of workers at a


Testing of workers at a Nashville construction site has revealed more than 74 cases of COVID-19.

Workers voiced concerns about close working conditions.

NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked one worker, "Why don't you just walk off the job?"

The worker responded, "Because you can't get unemployment if you just quit. So I have to provide for my family."

fischbobber's picture

The modern southern workplace model

We're back to slavery. Workers have no rights. Unemployment is an earned benefit. Any employers not providing safe work conditions should be obligated to make sure unemployment is continued for leaving workers until they find their next job.

Moon's picture

“We're back to slavery.“

I assume that was intentional hyperbole

CathyMcCaughan's picture

Bob

You can talk about class and economic hierarchy or feudalism or indentured servitude or many, many things, but you are not and have never been a slave. Irish immigrants weren't slaves and neither are either of us. The happenstance of our skin color affords us a privilege that makes comparisons of slavery grotesque. If you want to insist that you are being treated like a slave, call me and we'll talk. Drop by the house and we'll social distance chat. I know that you know better.

Treehouse's picture

Yes, slavery

When workers have no rights and are enslaved to a system that they cannot control or change because they have to provide for themselves and their families, in spite of wages that don't come up to the cost of living, a lack of health insurance or healthcare, and a government run like a business that treats them as "essential but disposable," then yes, I think we're back to slavery.

yellowdog's picture

Maybe you should learn a bit more

about how slavery actually played out for the slaves. Our system is a bit closer to involuntary servitude but it is not slavery. Families are not broken up and workers are not whipped and chased if they leave....

fischbobber's picture

Really?

Having had bosses that derived sadistic pleasure manipulating employees until their death or mental breakdown, I'd disagree with that. I'm watching people losing health insurance , accrued benefits, and unemployment every day. Watch the news. And yeah, my boss came after me to whip my ass, unprovoked and got clean away with it, so, yeah, it still happens. It gets worse every year.

yellowdog's picture

Really? slavery?

Are you still "owned" by that sadistic boss? Can you travel? Own property? Quit your lousy job?

bizgrrl's picture

Knox County reports 44 new

Knox County reports 44 new coronavirus cases in the past week.

Part of that is presumably the report of cases at Kroger at Cedar Bluff.

Grocer Kroger says three workers at its Cedar Bluff store on Kingston Pike have tested positive for COVID-19.

Health Department Director Martha Buchanan said there is another cluster of cases at a private school.

Shouldn't the public know which private school to trace contact with staff or students from that school?

fischbobber's picture

Community Spread

One of the last two big days was entirely community spread. I think I do recall her saying there was a small cluster on the other one.

If the numbers hold, this is getting ready to explode.

Glenn Jacobs and Martin Daniels have repeatedly endorsed the Swedish Protocol. Jacobs , like Trump, refuses to lead by wearing a mask. Based on what I've seen (I drive around town after work, both to report on what's going on, and because I'm bored like everyone else), this deviates from Swedish Protocol in that it appears to be a manufactured outbreak. Jacobs plan appears to be trying infect as many people as quickly as possible and let it play out. This technique virtually guarantees Knoxville the highest death rate attainable. I know this was what Daniels endorsed because that was what we were disagreeing about on his Representative page before he cut me off and censored me. (That's illegal by the way, and a rabbit-hole that would have shut me up)

The protocols instituted by Kincannon and Buchannon were working. It remains to be seen how Jacobs plan will work out, but the models we have to compare it to don't look good for Knoxville over the next few months. Among other things, Jacobs is gambling with football season, which ironically what will ultimately set the community off in my opinion.

I see a lot of death in our community's future much, if not most due to Jacobs and Daniels master plan for the master class. I hope I'm wrong, but once we turn the metric and begin to outrun our health department's ability to contract trace, mitigate, and manage the outbreak, we have a community of 480,000 with, at best 10,000 people exposed with antibodies. The first wave of this outbreak could easily take over 1000 people, (setting up compatibles with Sweden our first wave numbers will be closer to 1500) and quickly over-run our hospitals capacity to deal with them. Jacobs has been modeling after New York when he should have been watching Albany Ga, , Montgomery, and Tuscaloosa.

Make sure you have access to masks, cloth works. Follow Kincannon's advice. It's basic, doable, and it works. Above all, if something looks like a manufactured hotspot, avoid it. That's probably what it is.

bizgrrl's picture

Fwup, all of the farm workers

Fwup, all of the farm workers (about 200) at the Henderson Farms in Evensville, TN (Rhea County) have been diagnosed with coronavirus.

At Henderson Farms in Evensville, Tennessee, where all the workers caught the virus, the employees are now all in isolation at the farm, where they live and work.

It's happening across the country.

In New Jersey, more than 50 workers had the virus at a farm in Gloucester County, adding to nearly 60 who fell ill in neighboring Salem County. Washington state’s Yakima County, an agricultural area that produces apples, cherries, pears and most of the nation’s hops, has the highest per capita infection rate of any county on the West Coast.

From the Chattanooga Times Free Press,

Tennessee Department of Health spokesman Bill Christian said Wednesday that the state agency had no figures specifically on the farm and referred any other questions to the company.

Hmmmm... eight days after the initial report the state has no information? Not in charge? Doesn't care?

bizgrrl's picture

Fwup on the farm workers at


Fwup on the farm workers at the Henderson Farms in Evensville, TN (Rhea County):

Migrant workers have become another casualty of the pandemic, with ballooning illness among the migrants a problem waiting to happen, according to Caitlin Berberich from Southern Migrant Legal Services
...

In Rhea County, the migrant workers arrived in April from Mexico in the middle of a pandemic to be housed in barracks-style rooms, where the workers are typically crowded together and have access to limited sanitary facilities.

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