Latest COVID-19 case surge is Hamilton County’s 4th largest

Medical worker holding Coronavirus COVID-19 NP OP swab sample test kit, nasal collection equipment, CDC submitting form, reverse transcription RT-PCR DNA molecular nucleic acid diagnostic procedure covid tile coronavirus tile covid test testing tile / Getty Images Medical worker holding Coronavirus COVID-19 NP OP swab sample test kit, nasal collection equipment, CDC submitting form, reverse transcription RT-PCR DNA molecular nucleic acid diagnostic procedure covid tile coronavirus tile covid test testing tile / Getty Images

By Elizabeth Fite July 11, 2022 4 min read

COVID-19 cases in Hamilton County are at their highest levels since the initial omicron surge in early 2022 as new, more contagious versions of the omicron variant drive the latest wave of infections.

The Chattanooga region’s latest wave comes amid a national COVID-19 surge that has been gaining steam since mid-April as a result of omicron subvariants BA.4 and now BA.5, which according to tracking from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention became the dominant coronavirus variant in both the Southeast and the United States as a whole in early July.

Both subvariants are better than any prior strain at evading immunity from previous infection and vaccination, and they’re the most contagious versions of the coronavirus yet.

“Each new variant that comes out is more contagious, and biologically, that makes sense,” Dr. Mark Anderson, an infectious disease specialist at CHI Memorial Hospital, said in a phone interview.