CHATTANOOGA, Tenn – Hamilton County has reported 341 new positive Covid-19 tests in the last week. That is almost half of the total 717 cases that have been reported so far.
Today, the Covid-19 Task Force met to discuss the growing numbers.
Kerry Hayes says “Continuing to do whatever we possibly can to encourage members of the public to follow all of the same safety precautions that we have been asking for since the very beginning.”
Covid-19 task force responds to high spike over this weekend with over 160 positive cases.
“As we are reopening things the virus is still spreading, fatality rate is increasing. I think it’s probable almost certain that the United States will have it’s one hundred thousandth death related to Coronavirus.”
The Task force stressed concerns for Latin members in the community.
“As of Friday more than half of all positive cases were Hispanic. I haven’t seen the ethnic breakdown but the two big surges that we had over the weekend. But based on everything we know that the transmission rate in those neighborhoods is really really growing far too rapidly.”
Also providing LatinX leaders to give outreach to those members.
“The Covid 19 LatinX outreach working group. This is a group set of local individuals who are working to come up with specific outreach plans for businesses, for faith organizations for grassroots leadership.”
While numbers are alarming the task force is also asking for a number of negative tests results, to properly asset the city.
“We’re continuing to just to make a request to get additional information, but we do need to see it; to assess where we are at as a community as a whole.”