Covid 19 numbers up just about across the board in Hamilton County

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – There was another sharp rise in positive Covid-19 cases today in Hamilton County, but hospital numbers are also going up.

The good news is that there are no new deaths to report on Wednesday, after seeing fatalities on Monday and Tuesday.

But there were 55 new cases reported by the Health Department, the second highest daily total yet.

Officials have been warning all along that the positive cases would go up as testing goes up in our area.

And health officials have spent the last week targeting the Hispanic community with testing since they have been hit hard.

The rate of Hispanic positive tests are now running about double of non-Hispanics in our area.

Still, the other numbers are also going up on Wednesday.

21 people have now been hospitalized with Covid-19 (new high), while 12 people in local hospitals are under investigation for having it (2nd highest in May).

And ICU cases also jumped to 13 (new single day high).  The ICU numbers had leveled off last week after a brief spike, but have jumped again since Friday.

Still, the hospital numbers remain well below the feared “surge” levels that would have taxed local resources.