COVID Records Continue to be Set

More than 1,000 New Cases over Labor Day Holiday

Hamilton County continues to set record numbers during the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Hamilton County Health Department, on Tuesday, Sept. 7, 93 people were in area hospital intensive care units, surpassing the previous record of 84 set on Sept. 3.

The health department reports that from Friday, Sept. 3 until Tuesday, Sept. 7 there were 1,071 new COVID-19 cases diagnosed. Two more deaths were reported bringing the death toll to 567. A total of 56,642 people in Hamilton County have now had COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

On Tuesday, 327 people were hospitalized suffering from COVID. An addition 11 patients were hospitalized as “persons under investigation” as having COVID.

There have been 3,339 cases reported in East Ridge since the beginning of the pandemic. The current number of cases stands at 214 but that number has not been updated since Sept. 2.

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.