The COVID-19 outbreak in the tri-state area around Chattanooga is among the fastest-growing in the nation as the virus surges in rural and urban areas.
On Friday, The New York Times ranked Athens, Tennessee, first in the nation for a week-to-week rise in new cases of the coronavirus. Scottsboro, Alabama, was ranked third and Cleveland, Tennessee, was ranked ninth.
Tennessee’s rate of new infections has spiked in the previous two months, putting it among some of the fastest-growing states in the nation for coronavirus. Rhea and McMinn counties are among the worst in the state for new cases in the past week.
In a 21-county region in Southeast Tennessee, Northwest Georgia and Northeast Alabama, the virus has grown most rapidly in the past seven days in Jackson County, Alabama, where Scottsboro is located, according to analysis by the Times Free Press. Jackson County averaged 11.82 new cases a day in the past week per 10,000 residents. Calculating new cases on a per capita basis allows for comparison across heavily populated and more rural counties.
“I think you’re seeing COVID fatigue here just like you are everywhere else. People are tired of the masks, they’re tired of staying separated,” Scottsboro Mayor Jim McCamy said Friday of Jackson County’s cases. While recent numbers reflect rising virus activity from a couple of weeks back, “that doesn’t take into account Thanksgiving last week,” he said.