Many West Tennessee counties see spike of COVID-19

JACKSON, Tenn. — With omicron continuing to increase COVID-19 cases nationwide, West Tennessee is also seeing the rise.

The weeks before the beginning of the year to the two weeks after saw a drastic increase in cases.

For Carroll County, in the past two weeks, the Tennessee Department of Health reported an increase of over 600 cases.

“Numbers have really picked up over the past few weeks. It seems like right now is about as bad as it has been since the beginning of all of this,” said Joseph Butler, the Mayor of Carroll County.

Butler says the recent surge has required officials to close schools in hopes of reducing and stopping the spread.

“We will hopefully get some folks recovered by taking additional measures starting Monday to continue, hopefully, seeing these numbers go down over the next four days and moving forward,” Butler said.

Crockett County has reported over 500 cases in the past two weeks.

Crockett County Mayor Gary Reasons says in the past they have been able to give residents the monoclonal antibody infusion.

But with treatment supply low, first responders have had to transport more people to the hospital.

“There are more people that are having to be transported to the hospital now. Before, with the infusions, we were keeping numerous people out of the hospital. It is unfortunate that we cannot get it this time because it is in such short supply,” Reasons said.

Other West Tennessee counties that have seen a large increase in cases include Gibson County, which saw an increase of over 1,800 cases.

Hardin, Haywood, Chester, and Henderson counties also saw an over 400 case increase since the end of last year.

And in Hardeman County, COVID-19 cases jumped by over 100.

Butler says that along with encouraging vaccines, he says residents have put their guard back up to stop the spread.

“We have certainly got that back up, and seeing more and more masks and distancing measures take place and really being mindful of our everyday interactions,” Butler said.

Madison County has also seen an increase of over 1,000 cases.

For more information on COVID-19 cases in West Tennessee and across the state, click here.

For more information on COVID-19, go to the CDC website, the Tennessee Department of Health website or call (877) 857-2945.

Additional COVID-19 information can be found in the “COVID-19” tab of the website.