There was good news at Monday’s media conference at the Health Department. Becky Barnes, administrator, said while coronavirus cases have now risen to 121, the number of deaths has remained at 13.
In addition to this, Ms. Barnes announced that over the last full week, the number of new cases per day dropped from 5.8 to 2.1, even as the number of tests have increased. She also said the number of hospitalizations per day have lessened from 15 to 10 per day.
Hamilton County will be opening another testing site at the emissions testing center on 1620 Riverfront Parkway. This site will be open this upcoming weekend and the next. For weekday testing the Bonnyshire site will be in use.
The new site is being operated in partnership with the Chattanooga Police Department, Opus Inspection Inc., Tennessee National Guard, and Tennessee Department of Health.
She said calling ahead is recommended, as callers will be given a time to come in and get tested. Ms. Barnes said a physician’s referral is not needed. The test samples will be taken to Baylor School’s lab, and results will be returned in 48 hours. Anyone wanting a COVID-19 test should call the Health Department scheduling number 209-8393 to make an appointment.
The new site is predicted to handle hundreds of individuals per day on the weekends it is open. For now, the Riverfront site will be in operation for the next two weekends (April 25-26 and May 2-3). The decision to continue on subsequent weekends will be made at that time based on available resources.
Like the Bonnyshire samples, all samples collected at the Riverfront site will be processed at the Hamilton County Laboratory at Baylor School.
Bonnyshire Testing Center Riverfront Testing Center
Monday-Friday Only, 9AM-12PM Saturday and Sunday Only, 8:30AM-12:30PM
7460 Bonnyshire Dr. 1620 Riverfront Pkwy.
Open to public with appointment from the Open to public with appointment from the
Health Department, call 209-8393. Health Department, call 209-8393.
No physician referral needed. No physician referral needed.
Do not need to have symptoms. Do not need to have symptoms.