Most Current COVID-19 Information

The Hamilton County Health Department reported 948 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the total number of people in the county diagnosed with the virus since the beginning of the pandemic to 70,070.

The health department reported five more deaths on Wednesday and 26 since Dec. 22. That makes 2,178 positive cases in one week. Officials now say that 779 people have died from COVID-19 during the two-plus years of the pandemic.

The health department reports there are currently 3,026 active COVID cases in Hamilton County. There are currently 124 people who are being treated in hospital for the virus.

According to the health department, as of Dec. 16 there are 62 active cases in East Ridge. Over the span of the pandemic, 4,068 cases have been reported in our city.

Our region was not alone in spiraling COVID cases, as across the U.S. a record 488,000 new cases were reported on Wednesday.

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.