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Watauga County Surpasses 100 Positive COVID-19 Cases; AppHealthCare to Release New Data Weekly

By Nathan Ham

Positive COVID-19 tests in Watauga County reached triple figures with 103 positive cases as of Wednesday afternoon. Currently, 61 active cases are in Watauga County while Ashe County has 14 active cases and Alleghany has five active cases. As a district, AppHealthCare is reporting 198 positive tests and 80 active cases with seven people currently hospitalized.

AppHealthCare also announced on Tuesday that they will be handling data updates a little differently. Beginning this Thursday, COVID-19 data will be released weekly for Alleghany, Ashe, and Watauga counties.

“As this response effort continues to evolve, we are continuing to evaluate the best data to share so the community is informed. We have decided to move toward reporting testing data on a weekly basis instead of daily. We have made this decision so that we can provide the most accurate data possible and also allow our staff to focus more on the increased needs around case investigation and contact tracing due to increased case counts throughout our district,” said Melissa Bracey, Director of Communications & Compliance with AppHealthCare. “We appreciate your patience and flexibility as we continue to meet the needs of this response effort.”

According to Bracey, the data report will include trend charts for numbers of completed tests, positive cases, active cases, and “key messages” that highlight the current state of COVID-19 in the three counties that AppHealthCare serves. Each report will be released weekly on Thursdays and the reports will show the data captured from the previous week.