County Mayor Jim Coppinger said with COVID numbers rapidly rising in Hamilton County, the local COVID Task Force has been re-engaged.
He said the group that includes local hospital personnel and infectious disease specialists met on Tuesday.
The county mayor said, "Our numbers are way up. Those in ICU are up. Those on ventilators are up."
He said hospital officials said that of COVID patients over 75 percent in the hospital have not gotten vaccinated. He said, "There are no vaccinated patients in the ICU."
He said, "You might get lucky and have a mild case, or you might end up seriously ill in the hospital."
County Mayor Coppinger said, "We've got over 6,000 people walking around in Hamilton County with active cases. Not too long ago we were down to about 120 and I thought we were there."
He said 926 county residents have died from COVID.