COVID Cases Continue to Climb in Hamilton County

Two more deaths were attributed to COVID-19 on Thursday, Aug. 19, according to the latest information from the Hamilton County Health Department. The death toll now stands at 539.

On Thursday, 298 new cases were reported, the most since Jan. 18. The total number of cases climbed to 51,293 since the beginning of the pandemic.

Health department officials announced there will be a briefing on Friday at 2 p.m. concerning COVID-19.

The number of people hospitalized declined by 14 to 206. The number of patients in Intensive Care decline by three to 57.

There have been 3,037 cases reported in East Ridge since the beginning of the pandemic. The current number of cases has not been updated since Aug. 12. At that time there were 132.

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.