COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations Increasing

132 Active COVID-19 Cases In East Ridge

The number of COVID-19 cases in Hamilton County have been increasing in recent days and weeks.

According to the Hamilton County Health Department, on Wednesday, Aug. 18, there were 264 new cases reported. Four more people succumbed to COVID-19, bringing the number of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic to 537. The total number of people who have contracted COVID-19 in Hamilton County now stands at 50,995.

There are 132 active cases in East Ridge, according to the HCHD. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 3,009 people in our city have contracted COVID-19.

People currently hospitalized for the virus in the county on Wednesday stood at 220, the highest since late December of 2020 at the height of the pandemic. There were 60 people in the Intensive Care Unit on Wednesday, down from 63 on the previous day. ICU patients continue to hover near record highs.

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.