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COVID-19 Update: Active Cases in Watauga County Increased by 28 Percent Over Seven-Day Period

By Nathan Ham

Positive COVID-19 cases are still rising in Watauga County with an additional 107 cases in the last seven days, an increase of 28 percent since October 2. Currently, there are 377 active cases in the county with another 375 individuals being actively monitored. There have now been 1,473 total cases in Watauga County since the pandemic started.

There have been three additional deaths reported from the virus, bringing the total to 14 lives lost in Watauga. Ashe County also had two additional deaths this week, bringing their countywide total to five. Glenbridge Health and Rehabilitation has been the location of the bulk of the deaths in the count. A call placed to Glenbridge on Friday afternoon referred all questions to AppHealthCare.

In the three-county district that AppHealthCare serves, there are currently 51 people hospitalized due to complications from COVID-19.

Things are not trending any better on Appalachian State’s campus either. The university announced on Thursday that four additional clusters were identified on campus, which means a minimum of five cases within a 14-day period. There were nine cases identified at Hoey residence hall, six cases at Gardner residence hall, seven cases at Frank residence hall, and five cases at Coltrane residence hall. There are also four new positive cases associated with the active App State football team cluster with three staff members and one student-athlete testing positive. Mountaineer football practice has been suspended indefinitely, and App State’s football game at Georgia Southern, scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 14, has been postponed.

App State updated its COVID-19 dashboard on Friday afternoon showing that 169 students and seven employees are dealing with active cases, bringing the total to 824 students and 36 employees since March 27.