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BY NIC MILLER
STAR STAFF
nic.miller@elizabethton.com

This past Friday, the Tennessee Department of Health released updated statistics of Covid throughout Northeast Tennessee.

Included in these statistics is the discovery of 508 new cases of the virus and six new deaths. One main concern with these numbers is that Friday marked the second day in a row with 500 or more new cases since last December.

In terms of vaccination rates in Northeast Tennessee, numbers have gone up in the area with around 40% of the population, or around 203,000 people having been vaccinated.

Washington County leads the charge in vaccination rates with 48.3% of people, while Unicoi and Sullivan County follow closely with 42% of people.

Carter County finds themselves near the bottom of the totem pole for Northeast Tennessee in terms of vaccinations with 30.5% of people, followed only by Johnson County with 30.1% of people.

New cases across the region are very high, but after breaking things down by counties, Sullivan has recorded the highest number with 145, followed by Washington with 119 new cases and Greene County with 82,

Carter County, while low in vaccinations, still remain fairly low compared to other counties in terms of new cases of the virus with 75 being reported. The only counties with less new cases of Covid-19 are Hawkins County with 52, Unicoi County with 21, and Johnson county recording 14 new cases.

With those numbers being related to just last Friday, the 7-day totals are exponentially higher with 2,765 new cases across the region.

Sullivan County once again leads in the 7-day category with 821 new cases, while Washington County has recorded 683 and Carter County has reported 397.

Deaths in the region, while not as common as new cases, are still very prevalent. On Friday, Washington County recorded two covid related deaths while Greene, Hawkins, Johnson, and Unicoi County each had one.

Over the past seven days, the numbers increase with Greene County recording seven new deaths, Sullivan recording five, Washington County with four, Carter County with three deaths, while Hawkins, Johnson, and Unicoi County only recorded one.

With the new Delta Variant of Covid-19 becoming more common in the area, cases are expected to rise before evening back out.