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

With the introduction of the new Delta variant of COVID-19 by health and medical professionals earlier this year, cases of the virus have recently began to rise once again in Northeast Tennessee.

Earlier this week, the Tennessee Department of Health released data showing that new cases as well as deaths have increased in Northeast Tennessee, with there being 117 new current cases of COVID-19 and three new deaths being recorded.

The data recorded also recognized the number of people in the area who have received the COVID-19 vaccine in Northeast Tennessee, with that number only being around 39% of the total population, or only around 200,000 people.

In terms of the breakdown of new COVID-19 cases in Northeast Tennessee by county, Sullivan County has recorded the most with 39, Washington County close behind with 33, Hawkins County accounting for 16 new cases, Carter and Greene County both with 13, Unicoi County with two, and Johnson County only recording one new case.

However, when shown data regarding new cases in Northeast Tennessee in the past seven days, the numbers increase tremendously, with Sullivan County recording 468, Washington County recording 291, Greene County recording 208 new cases, Hawkins County showing 189, Carter County showing 159 new cases, Unicoi County recording 41, and Johnson County showing only 35 new cases in the past week.

These numbers total up to 1,391 new cases of COVID-19 in Northeast Tennessee in the past week, increasing the number of new cases in seven days from the total of the week prior which was 843 new cases. This increases the total number of cases of COVID-19 for Northeast Tennessee to 60,937 since the pandemic began in 2020.

In terms of COVID-19 related deaths in Northeast Tennessee, the past seven days recorded a total of 12, with Hawkins County showing five, Washington County with three, Sullivan County showing two, and Unicoi and Carter County recording one death each.

This number has also increased from the total number of deaths in Northeast Tennessee from the previous seven days, when only four were recorded. Since the pandemic began, Northeast Tennessee has reported 1,110 COVID-19 related deaths.

The data shows a tremendous increase in both new cases in deaths, a number that has not been this high since the 24th of January this year.