(Mike Osborne) — Some of Metro Nashville’s COVID-19 indicators began rising again last week after falling for months.
On the plus side, there were 385 active coronavirus infections in all of Davidson County Monday, Feb. 28,2022. Compare that to early January when active cases peaked at nearly 23,000 virus positive residents citywide.
But on the downside, two other Metro COVID-19 metrics turned slightly higher this past week for the first time in months. On Monday, health officials reportedthat hospitalizations and the test positivity rate were both trending higher
The number of Nashvillians hospitalized with virus complications rose to 57 cases, an increase of just three patients. While a minor change, it's the first time hospitalizations have risen since the Davidson County patient count peaked on Feb. 22 with 504 patients under hospital care.
The COVID-19 test positivity rate also increased fractionally over the past week. The running average topped out in early January when a whopping 37.9 percent of all Nashvillians tested for coronavirus were determined to be virus positive.
This past week the positivity rate had dropped to just 2.8 percent of all tests returning a positive result. But as of Monday, test positivity had inched up a half-percent to 3.3 percent.
It will likely be mid-April before there is sufficient data to determine if Nashville has begun a sixth surge of COVID-19 infections, or whether case counts will continue to fall.