Geoinformatics and Disaster Science Lab

So happy to see ETSU's hazard mitigation plan in the news! And so proud of our students and staff that worked on the plan.

GADS Lab earns FEMA recognition The Geoinformatics and Disaster Science (GADS) Lab at East Tennessee State University has received national recognition from FEMA, being featured in the federal agency’s Mitigation Planning Success Stories series.

Check it out! FEMA chose our ETSU Hazard Mitigation Plan as one of their top "Mitigation Planning Success Stories" - you can see the article here: https://www.fema.gov/case-study/university-resources-produce-risk-reduction-tools

We are also now included on their Story Map in the Outreach, Engagement, and Equity tab: https://bit.ly/3hVnxBJ

"As members of the campus community, the GADS Lab is deeply connected with the university landscape. One of the essential products created by the lab during the plan development process was the ETSU GIS Open Data Hub. Risk and vulnerability assessments were not comprehensive before the data hub’s development. The GADS lab developed various useful tools, products and communication materials through the data hub including a story map for ETSU and Johnson City, Tennessee to share information on flood risks, previous flood events and current mitigation efforts."

University Resources Produce Risk Reduction Tools Universities are not required to complete hazard mitigation plans. Most do not, instead relying on and participating in their local jurisdiction or county plan. The county hazard mitigation plan covers a broad geographic area and did not have the level of detail needed to take all the university ass...

Most trends are moving in a good direction across and the region with vaccines increasing and test positivity rates moving down in most counties. Vaccines are now available to anyone 12+ years old as well. Check out https://www.vaccines.gov/search/ to find vaccines near you.

We wanted to let you know about a data reporting change from the Tennessee Department of Health as well. You can read about it here:https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/health/documents/cedep/novel-coronavirus/Covid-19-Data-Update.pdf They are now providing data based on the date the case was added to their surveillance system instead of the date the case was reported. For now it appears that this also means there will be a 1-day lag in their datasets. If you check out our dashboards today (see links below), you will be looking at data from Tuesday (5/11). They will release Wednesday data (5/12) later today and we'll update our dashboards again later this evening or early tomorrow morning. We apologize for any confusion!

Looking at vaccination rates across Tennessee, there are 22 counties that have at least 30% of their total population vaccinated with 8 of those counties having over 35% of their total population vaccinated. Loudon County is leading the way and is the first county in the state with over 40% of their total population fully vaccinated. Most counties are seeing lower test positivity rates, although 16 counties continue to have double-digit test positivity rates (>10%) with Hawkins and Polk counties being above 15%.

Check out our dashboards for more info:

TN Mobile: http://arcg.is/1Xy8Xv
TN Desktop: http://arcg.is/er5OP
Regional: http://arcg.is/1fHLjq

With more vaccinations this past week we continue to see an increase in county-level vaccination rates. Washington County (TN) is the first county in the state to cross the 15% threshold for full vaccination.

Top 10 for full vaccination: Washington (15.04%), Unicoi, Henry, Sullivan, Carroll, Madison, Van Buren, Benton, Crockett, McNairy

Top 10 for partial vaccination (all over 32%): Unicoi (36.59%), Washington, Van Buren, Henry, Madison, Loudon, Pickett, Carroll, Cumberland, Sullivan

Across there are 12 counties with less than 20% partial vaccination and 17 counties with less than 7% full vaccination. The state average (full vaccination) is 8.90% as of Tuesday, March 9th. Additionally, 73 counties now have test positivity rates below 10%.

Based on our 2-week snapshot maps, testing increases exceeded case increases in most counties over the most recent 2 week period compared to the previous 2 week period - definitely a good sign.

Let's hope these trends continue! Below are links to state-specific vaccination info:

For Tennesseans, you can find out more about vaccination phases, where to get vaccinated, etc. here: https://covid19.tn.gov/covid-19-vaccines/county-vaccine-information/

This is the site for Virginians: https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/covid-19-vaccine/

And this is the site for North Carolinians: https://covid19.ncdhhs.gov/vaccines

Check out our maps, dashboards, and charts for more info!

TN Mobile: http://arcg.is/1Xy8Xv
TN Desktop: http://arcg.is/er5OP
Regional: http://arcg.is/1fHLjq
2-week Snapshots: https://arcg.is/1z0m4L

Check out this week's updates for the 2-week snapshot and school thresholds. Our dashboards are also up-to-date as of the last Tennessee Department of Health data release yesterday afternoon. We're comfortable now stating that there is a clear decline in new cases across , except in Claiborne County. You can see this in multiple maps and charts. The 2-week snapshot shows that many counties reported a larger increase in tests compared to cases between the first 2 weeks of January and the the last 2 weeks, with Claiborne (~-37%) and Dickson (~-5%) being the only counties where new cases exceeded new tests over the two time periods.

You can also see the decline in cases in the Northeast Tennessee school threshold charts and the 2-week case increase comparison map. On The Daily podcast from the New York Times (https://nyti.ms/3ppqAD8), they discuss the possible reasons for the steep decline in cases across much of the country and what problems lie ahead that may reverse this trend (e.g., new and more transmissible variants, relaxation of social distancing and restrictions, slow rollout of vaccines, etc.). One of the interesting discussion points was the possibility that some areas may be reaching a level of herd immunity because of the combination of so many infections and the increase in those who have been vaccinated. Some more recent estimates are that the number of infections may be ~4 times higher than reported (~25 million cases have been reported, so ~100 million people may have already been (or are currently) infected in the US). And around 24 million people have had at least their first vaccine shot.

While this is good news, we must remain vigilant so that the downward trend continues. While new cases are going down, deaths are still rising (since those tend to lag by 3-4 weeks), and we will likely reach or surpass 500,000 known deaths by the end of February.

Stay safe everyone!

Regional: http://arcg.is/1fHLjq
TN Mobile: http://arcg.is/1Xy8Xv
TN Desktop: http://arcg.is/er5OP
2-Week Snapshots: https://arcg.is/1z0m4L
TN Pledge Map: http://arcg.is/1m8Lzm

East Tennessee State University Virginia Department of Health NC Department of Health and Human Services Tennessee Department of Health