COVID cases continue to go up, Chattanooga temporarily closes buildings

Hamilton county is seeing a spike in coronavirus cases.

News 12's dorothy sherman explains how bad it's gotten, and what it means for city of chattanooga services.

Dsherman@wdef.com/dorothy sherman: "starting at 4:30 on friday, city hall and other municpal buildings will be closed to the public."

City officials are again restricting public access to municipal buildings.

It comes as hamilton county is seeing its third highest day in new coronavirus cases.

Hamilton county health officer/dr. paul hendricks: "wear your mask and keep your distance and wash your hands and keep yourself safe and healthy."

On thursday, the county reported 165 new cases.

And if that's not bad enough, half of our worst days for new cases have happened in the past two weeks.

Chattanooga mayor andy berke: "yesterday, there were 103,000 new coronavirus cases diagnosed in our country, 103,000 the most in our history."

Chattanooga mayor andy berke checked in one on of his weekly facebook lives thursday, and while his focus was on the presidential election, he did say that coronavirus will still be an issue needing to be resolved once the election is over.

Chattanooga mayor andy berke: "it was over 3,400 in our state.

One of the highest in our state's last several months.

Here in chattanooga we continue to see far to many people being diagnosed with coroanvirus."

The mayor did not mention the city building closures, but a press release says that "the city is taking steps to reduce person-to-person contact in order to protect residents and employees."

Public access will be temporarily suspended at city hall, city annex and city services at the development resource center.

The press release says city employess have not been "immune" to covid and says with exception of city court and wood recycling center cases, city employees that have contracted covid pose no risk to the public.

All services will continue to be provided, but according to the city "unforseen outbreak or more positive case among city employees could cause" disruptions.

Dsherman@wdef.com/dorothy sherman: "currently, there is no specific dates on when the buildings will reopen to the public.

In chattanooga, dorothy sherman, news 12 now."

The city is urging residents to do business with the city online or over