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BLOUNTVILLE – COVID-19 in Sullivan County has increased by more than 400 cases since Friday, according to figures released Monday afternoon by the Tennessee Department of Health.
Ballad Health has reported 264 COVID-19 patients at its hospitals in the system’s 21-county service area, with 68 intensive care unit beds, 50 on ventilators and seven pediatric patients in Niswonger Children’s Hospital.
Dr Stephen May, medical director of the Sullivan County Regional Health Department, said daily new cases are back to levels the county saw in January.
“When we start having over 100 new cases a day, we’re pretty much covered,” May said. “We have an average of 98 new cases a day, so we’re at this tipping point. And we’ve gone from less than 200 hospitalized at the end of last week to 264 hospitalized today… and seven of them are pediatric patients. We have never had so many pediatric patients hospitalized for COVID before. “
May noted that active cases are climbing rapidly to rates not seen since last December.
“We have 1,228 active cases,” May said early Monday afternoon, before the state released new updated totals, bringing Sullivan County’s number of active cases to 1,511. ” Usually when we hit the over 1000 point we are overwhelmed and it is very difficult to do case notifications and contact tracing notifications. “
Sample testing by the Centers for Disease Control indicates that 98% of new COVID cases in the Southeastern United States are from the delta variant, May said.
“And the lower vaccination rates correlate with the higher rates of new infections,” May said.
In the 21-county region served by the health system, 38.7% of the population is fully vaccinated, according to Ballad Health’s daily COVID-19 dashboard on Monday.
Sullivan County is slightly ahead of that average, with 42% of its population fully vaccinated, May said.
“We’re definitely not the worst,” May said. “But we have a long way to go to reverse this disease.”
New cases by county in the region, according to TDH, since its last report Friday: Carter, 133; Greene, 232; Hancock, 22; Hawkins, 144; Johnson, 43; Sullivan, 417; Unicoi, 37 years old; and Washington, 297.
Active (and increasing since Friday) cases by county in the region, according to Monday’s TDH report: Carter, 662 (+75); Greene, 790 (+146); Hancock, 70 (+14); Hawkins, 545 (+69); Johnson, 130 (+33); Sullivan, 1,511 (+223); Unicoi, 127 (+27); and Washington, 1159 (+157).
Three new deaths from COVID have been reported in the region: two in Carter County and one in Sullivan County.
The Tennessee Department of Health posted this video and others on its website “to separate fact from fiction” on COVID-19 vaccinations. For more information on COVID-19 vaccines in Tennessee, visit covid19.tn.gov/vaccine.
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