As much of the world celebrated the arrival of the new year, the COVID 19 virus continued to torment Warren County, claiming at least two lives locally in the week just before Christmas.
Meanwhile, some 96 percent of eligible Warren countians have bypassed the newest and most versatile anti-Covid vaccine, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Year-end figures from CDC show that only four percent of local citizens have rolled up their sleeves for the bivalent booster shot that has proven effective against the two major strains of the novel coronavirus. That compares with a statewide uptake of 5.5 percent, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.
In Warren County 41.1 per cent of the eligible population is considered “fully vaccinated,” meaning they have received the initial jab followed by the conventional boosters. The comparable statistic for all of the Volunteer State is 58.2 per cent.
The daily rate of new COVID cases nearly doubled in Warren County in December, rising to 12 cases per 100,000 population in the week ending December 24, state health officials reported. Public health experts predicted that social gatherings and family events would contribute to a surge in infections during the Christmas-New Year’s holidays. That could spell even higher case numbers in early January.
“Throughout the United States the virus continues to cause somewhere around 300 to 350 deaths each and every day,” Dr William Schaffner, infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said in an interview recording for McMinnville Public Radio 91.3-WCPI.
“The worst is behind us but this virus has not gone away. It’s not mission accomplished,” said Schaffner, who is also a professor at Vanderbilt University College of Medicine and a frequent expert guest on national news networks.
The interview has been airing this week on 91.3 FM, with additional broadcasts Wednesday morning at 5 a.m. as well as tomorrow at 1 p.m. and Friday at 1 a.m.
“We have to have a truce with this virus,” he stated, “so we minimize the illness, the distress and the serious consequences,” including death.
“Vaccination continues to be fundamental to keeping our guard up,” Schaffner stressed, noting that the COVID pathogen has gone into the endemic phase where it lingers indefinitely and may spring back to life furiously, triggering widespread hospitalizations and fatalities.
Since the start of COVID tracking in early 2021, Warren County lost 191 residents to the respiratory virus and its complications, state data shows. An additional 219 have required hospitalization out of a total of 15,227 verified cases, amounting to 37 per cent of the county’s entire population.
In a Zoom appearance at The Rotary Club of McMinnville in November, Schaffner warned of a possible “tridemic,” with illnesses resulting from a complex mix of COVID, seasonal flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
