Record Number of COVID Patients in ICU

193 Active Cases of COVID-19 in East Ridge

According to the Hamilton County Health Department, on Friday, August 27, there were a record 78 patients in area hospital Intensive Care Units being treated for COVID-19. The number shattered the August 25 figure of 68.

Friday also saw another record, as 256 people were hospitalized for COVID. The previous record of 244 was established on Thursday.

According to Hamilton County Health Department statistics, 422 new cases were reported on Friday. The total number of people who have contracted COVID since the inception of the pandemic now stands at 53,576. Deaths now stand at 551.

There have been 3,180 cases reported in East Ridge since the beginning of the pandemic. The current number of cases stood at 193.

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.