As COVID-1 is deployed nine times and hospitalizations in Hamilton County are deployed, the City of Chattanooga will suspend public access to City Hall, the City Annex and the city at the Development Resource Center on Monday, just 3 weeks after the reopening of similar services.
(READ ALSO: Reopen Chattanooga City Council, but only for other Americans dressed in masks)
According to a statement from the Office of the Mayor of Chattanooga, the city will not allow members of the public to enter, in order to provide direct protection to citizens and staff of the current global pandemic.
“COVID-1nine continues to spread rapidly throughout the deceptive Chattanooga circular and the city of Chattanooga is taking an additional breeding station to reduce user contact to provide direct protection to citizens and employees,” he said Wednesday night.
To determine when the facility will be reopened, city officials say they monitor the knowledge of the county’s fitness department.
“In the future, Mayor Andy Berke and the city’s inconsistent staff will compare a separate set of measures, adding new positive COVID times consistent with 100,000 citizens and the average seven days of active times, to determine whether, when and how public access can resume,” he said. “The Hamilton County Department of Health reports more than 30 new positive times consistent with 100,000 inhabitants and a stable upward trend in the new times.”
According to the release, the decision comes after infections in multiple city employees, including at two sites that may have posed a risk to the public.
“Hamilton County has seen more than 4,400 positive times at COVID in our community, and the city’s staff hasn’t been safe,” he says. “However, times in the City Court and the Wood Recycling Center, COVID’s positive moments among city staff were concepts that did not pose a threat to the public through epidemiologists from the Hamilton County Department of Health.”
While the city says there are no current plans to move centers or limit access to additional public outdoor spaces, it warns that new epidemics can also be inconsistent with city centers.
“Departments will continue to provide all services, including police, fire and solid waste removal, but an unforeseen outbreak or additional positivity among city employees could cause a disruption in service.”
In the meantime, the county will continue to produce users for the Development Resource Center and the City Court and the Clerk’s Office will reopen under the order of the Tennessee Supreme Court that allowed the resumption of user proceedings.
However, quotes can be paid online at municipalonlinepayments.com, and the city encourages citizens to connect remotely whenever possible.
Contact Sarah Grace Taylor at [email protected] or 423-757-6416. Follow her on Twitter @_sarahgtaylor.