County Has Record Number of Single-Day COVID cases

EDITOR’S NOTE: No updated information was available regarding COVID-19 on Wednesday. The following was posted on the health department’s Website: January 5, 2022 – Due to technical issues, the Health Department is unable to post any COVID-19 data today. Updates will resume tomorrow.

On Tuesday, Hamilton County set a record for single-day COVID-19 cases.

According to the Hamilton County Health Department, 1,014 cases were reported on Jan. 4. That figure surpassed the previous record of 948 set last week on Dec. 29.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 73,041 cases have been reported in the county, claiming 782 lives.

There were 156 people hospitalized for COVID-19 on Tuesday. Of those, 39 are in Intensive Care Units. There are currently 5,117 active cases across the county.

In East Ridge, the health department reports 4,332 cases since the beginning of the pandemic. The most recent statistics available (Dec. 16) showed 62 active cases in East Ridge.

According to the state health department, Tennessee’s weekly positivity rate for the virus rose to 34 percent, 10 percent higher than the peaks of prior surges. Tennessee is now averaging more than 10,000 infections every day, a high for the pandemic. State health officials said that number does not include an unknown number of at-home positive tests that are never reported to health officials.

The New York Times reported 547,613 COVID-19 cases across the United States on Jan. 4, a 254 percent increase over the last two weeks. However, the number of deaths decreased by three percent over the same time period.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.