Hamilton County's public health and medical leaders urged residents to stay vigilant in their response to COVID-19 in the wake of Sunday's severe weather, which created conditions favorable to the spread of the coronavirus as recovery efforts and family displacement put people in close contact.
Dr. Stephen Barnes spent most of March at home, recovering from COVID-19. Despite being temporarily sidelined, he's now back at the hospital bedside, and his potential role in helping patients through the pandemic is even greater.
Now that Chattanooga leaders have identified a site to handle overflow patients from area hospitals, the area's COVID-19 task force is turning its attention to the issue of who will oversee medical care and staffing there.
More than 150 residents and staff at nursing homes in Tennessee have tested positive for COVID-19, but unlike neighboring Georgia, the state will not say how many senior-living facilities have seen infections.
A site in Bradley County that began providing drive-thru COVID-19 testing last weekend is now touting a 10-minute "rapid screen" - but it's not meant to diagnose a COVID-19 infection.
In Tennessee, where 13 hospitals have closed in the last decade (the second most of any state), public transportation is limited, chronic disease and poverty rates are high and physicians are in short supply, technology may be a person's best chance of receiving needed care. Neighboring Georgia and Alabama face similar challenges.
While much of the attention fixates on hospital preparations, primary care providers on the frontlines are already in a full blown war against COVID-19.
The new local COVID-19 Task Force focused on communication and determining the area's most needed resources during its first meeting Tuesday.
Vascular surgeon Chris LeSar is a self-proclaimed tech junkie who says technology isn't just an asset to his medical practice - it's essential.
The world was scrambling to understand and control the Zika virus epidemic when I began covering health care five years ago.
