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FROM STAFF REPORTS

The Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Tennessee recently reconciled several outstanding death certificates of those who perished from the coronavirus from the spring of 2020 to December 2021, leading the Tennessee Department of Health to add more than 2,000 deaths from COVID-19 to the state’s total.

These COVID-19 deaths were reported on Thursday and raised the death total 9%, from 1,668 up to 1,816 in the region of Northeast Tennessee.

Sullivan County recorded 36 new deaths; Washington County, 30; Greene and Hawkins counties, 27 each; Carter County, 18; and Unicoi and Johnson counties, five each.

The reason for this data showing up so late comes from many attributing factors, including the length of time it takes facilities to process COVID-19 deaths, the increase of at-home deaths, and a strain on health care organizations during coronavirus surges.

Daily data from the Tennessee Department of Health showed that vaccination rates throughout the region have steadily increased, with nearly 49% of the population in Northeast Tennessee having been vaccinated. In the past week, there have been a total of 1,572 new vaccinations which is up by 23% from the past seven-day period.

In terms of new cases in the region, the Tennessee Department of Health recorded 379, with Sullivan and Washington counties leading the pack with 125 and 102 new cases, respectively.

Greene County had the next highest rate of new cases with 49, while Hawkins County reported 42. Carter County had 38 new cases of COVID-19, Johnson County recorded 13, and Unicoi County reported 10.

Since the pandemic began, Tennessee has recorded 1,366,921 cases of COVID-19, while Northeast Tennessee has reported 100,382 and Carter County has recorded 11,466.