Elizabeth Fite

Starting Tuesday, Hamilton County residents, workers or students ages 16 and up can show up to the health department's first-dose COVID-19 vaccination sites between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. without an appointment and get worked into that day's schedule.

Just over half of Hamilton County residents aged 61 and above have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, meaning many of those most at-risk for dying due to the coronavirus remain unprotected, according to county health officials.

Meticulous infection control wasn't new to Towanda Marshall when COVID-19 arrived.

Some Hamilton County residents will soon be able to rapidly test themselves for COVID-19 at home through a new initiative from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.

Coronavirus-related fatalities dropped dramatically across the Chattanooga region in March, with 94 deaths reported in the 21-county region - the lowest monthly death toll since July.

Southeast Tennessee health departments surrounding Hamilton County are now offering early morning and evening appointments at their COVID-19 vaccine sites to better accommodate people who work during regular business hours.

Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger announced Monday he will extend the countywide mask mandate through April 28 and then will lift the requirement.

Tennessee's low COVID-19 vaccination rate threatens more than just those who choose not to get vaccinated, which is why the health care and scientific communities are pushing for more education and efforts to combat vaccine hesitancy in order to get more shots into arms.

All Hamilton County residents age 16 and up are eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccinations effective immediately, meaning all adults in Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia are now cleared to get vaccinated.

Orange Grove Center's outdated CPR dummies were destined for the dumpster until Dr. Rick Rader decided their work teaching the importance of heart health wasn't over.

Patients established with CHI Memorial Medical Group can now be vaccinated at one of 11 Memorial locations in Tennessee as long as they are eligible for vaccination in their county of residence where the clinic is located.

The highly contagious U.K. variant of the coronavirus known as B.1.1.7 is now the predominant strain circulating throughout the Chattanooga region, according to Baylor School research scientists.

All Tennessee residents age 16 and older will be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine no later than April 5, according to an announcement Monday from the Tennessee Department of Health.

With the promise of widespread COVID-19 vaccine availability on the horizon, employers may be weighing whether to require workers to be vaccinated in order to safely return to work.

All Hamilton County residents and workers age 55 and up are now eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines in the county effective immediately, according to a Thursday announcement from the Hamilton County Health Department.

The COVID-19 vaccine campaign in the Chattanooga region has begun to shift away from supply-and-demand challenges that marked early efforts and will face a new challenge in the coming months - how to get doses in the arms of those who haven't yet received them.

On Friday, another 101 manila folders were added to the stacks and boxes lining what was once empty space in a repurposed conference room now used for COVID-19 case investigations at the Hamilton County Health Department.

Aside from everyone wearing face masks, life within Erlanger hospital is starting to more closely resemble a time before the novel coronavirus brought Chattanooga health care systems to their knees, forcing them to pivot nearly all their energy toward preparing for a COVID-19 surge and conserving valuable resources for only the most essential services.

Teresa Evans can't begin to estimate how much money she's spent on cleaning supplies.

Here are answers to questions that newly eligible residents might have about getting the COVID-19 vaccine in the Chattanooga area.