BLOUNTVILLE – COVID-19 in Sullivan County has risen in more than 400 cases since Friday, according to figures released Monday afternoon by the Tennessee Department of Health.
Ballad Health reported 264 COVID-19 patients in its service area hospitals in 21 system counties, with 68 in intensive care beds, 50 with ventilators, and seven pediatric patients hospitalized at Niswonger Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Stephen May, medical director of the Sullivan County Regional Health Department, said new cases are re-emerging every day at levels the county experienced in January.
“When we start having more than 100 new cases a day we’re pretty much covered up,” May said. “We’ve been doing an average of 98 new cases a day, so we’re at this turning point. And we’ve gone from less than 200 hospitalized late last week to 264 hospitalized today … and seven of those they are pediatric patients. We have never had so many pediatric patients admitted by COVID. “
May noted that active cases are rising rapidly toward rates not seen since last December.
“We have 1,228 active cases,” May said early Monday afternoon, before the state released new updated totals, raising Sullivan County’s active case load to 1,511. “Normally, when we reach over 1,000, we’re overwhelmed and it makes it very difficult to make case notifications and contact tracking notifications.”
Sample testing from the Centers for Disease Control indicates that 98% of new COVID cases in the southeastern United States come from the delta variant, May said.
“And lower vaccination rates correlate with where there are higher rates of new infections,” May said.
Across the region of 21 counties served by the health system, 38.7% of the population is fully vaccinated, according to Ballad Health’s COVID-19 Scorecard data chart daily.
Sullivan County is slightly above that average, with 42 percent of its population fully vaccinated, May said.
“We’re absolutely not the worst,” May said. “But we still have a long way to go to get through this disease.”
New cases by counties across the region, according to TDH, since its last report Friday: Carter, 133; Greene, 232; Hancock, 22; Hawkins, 144; Johnson, 43; Sullivan, 417; Unicoi, 37; and Washington, 297.
Active cases (and increase since Friday) by counties across the region, according to the TDH report on Monday: Carter, 662 (+75); Greene, 790 (+146); Hancock, 70 (+14); Hawkins, 545 (+69); Johnson, 130 (+33); Sullivan, 1,511 (+223); Unicoi, 127 (+27); and Washington, 1,159 (+157).
Three new deaths were reported for COVID across the region: two in Carter County and one in Sullivan County.
The Tennessee Department of Health has posted this and other videos on its website “to separate facts from fiction” about COVID-19 vaccines. For more information on COVID-19 vaccines in Tennessee, go to covid19.tn.gov/vaccine.