As the Health Department and our community continue to fight against the COVID pandemic, we want to take this time to reflect and acknowledge several milestones reached in our community.

As of today, Health Department has distributed over 60,000 at-home, test kits to the community, including an additional 140,000 PCR tests administered & resulted out by Health Department staff. More recently, the Health Department crossed the milestone of having given over 200,000 doses of the COVID vaccine here in Hamilton County. At times, this hurdle seemed so very far away but was something that we kept chipping away at, day by day. Despite all of the hard work being done in the community to fight this virus, this has not come without immense hardship and loss.

As of today, our community has reached the sobering milestone of 1,000 COVID deaths, since the start of the pandemic. Each one of these deaths was an individual; they were someone’s mother, father, sister, brother, or friend. Our deepest sympathies and condolences to all those who have lost loved ones; they leave a hole in our community that cannot be replaced.  Grief is natural after such a loss and there are resources in the community that can help. Please visit the CDC’s webpage at https://bit.ly/3IXzSQ2 to learn more about the common reactions of grief and to find resources that can help better manage it.

This statistic is a reminder that this pandemic is not over and that COVID is still here and thriving in our community. As a reminder, the Health Department operates our COVID hotline, which is a resource for the community to access for help answering any COVID questions and to find other resources available that can help. Please call us at 423-209-8383 with any questions.

Sabrina Novak _ Hamilton County Health Department Administrator