Sullivan County and Washington County continue to make the top tier. Sullivan County ranks seventh in the number of new cases (209). Washington County comes in at number 14 with 158 new cases reported.The total number of infected rank Sullivan at number nine and Washington at number 12.
Impending gloom
The state department of health announced another 542 new COVID-19 cases in the region Tuesday. This comes at a time when Tennessee COVID-19 cases are reaching a new high. The state added another 9,230 cases statewide, and another 50 deaths in todays data release.
Tennessee’s seven-day new case rate reached a record high with 75,045 new cases reported statewide over the past seven days. The active cases are at an all-time high, at just under 100,000.
The Omnicron variant of COVID is making a surge driving case numbers up in Northeast Tennessee. The region’s seven-day case rate has increased 76% over the past week.
Here are the number of new cases reported Tuesday, listed by county:
- Carter 45
- Greene 67
- Hancock 8
- Hawkins 33
- Johnson 11
- Sullivan 209
- Unicoi 11
- Washington 158
The eight counties of Northeast Tennessee have added 542 new cases total. Over the most recent seven-day period, the region reported 2,920 new cases:
- Carter 271
- Greene 364
- Hancock 60
- Hawkins 266
- Johnson 68
- Sullivan 989
- Unicoi 97
- Washington 805
Compare this to the number reported over the past 14 days: 4,570
Since the pandemic began, the Northeast Tennessee region has documented 105,674 positive cases. At least 4,476 people have been hospitalized in Northeast Tennessee alone, due to COVID. The Tennessee Department of Health also reports 1,927 people have died thus far, due to COVID-19.
Better news coming
The CDC says more studies are required to know if the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is more dangerous than Delta and the other mutations. They also believe that vaccination and masks are the best means of combating the spread of the variant.
A December 2, 2021 article in Medical Daily reports man of the same positions. The article goes on to say "Despite the alarming tone of the initial findings, there is hope that omicron wouldn’t be as big of a problem as the delta variant — previously dubbed as the most dangerous strain for being highly contagious and causing more severe illness in COVID-19 patients. A frontline doctor in South Africa told the BBC earlier this week that so far, the patients they have encountered with the omicron strain presented “extremely mild symptoms” of the infection.
Observations
In a brief inpromptu survey of people on the streets of Johnson City last week, seven of eight people believed the COVID-19 situation to be getting better in the region, in contrast to the rise in positive cases. They believe the situation is getting better as people are learning to live with the situation and not continue in fear as they were initially. Seven of the eight surveyed believe the media and politicians played on their fears to promote change that would otherwise not have occured.
Six of the eight surveyed were college graduates. All eight had completed high school, and the two non-graduates report having attended college but not finishing. The age ranges were: 18-25 (3); 26-30 (2); 31-40 (2); 45-55 (1). The survey was random and does not necessarily represent the mindset of a majority of the people in the area.
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