"We're going to see more illness, hospitalization and death."

More than 1,000 Sweetwater County residents have contracted COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic and some resources are being stretched thin.

According to Dr. Jean Stachon, the county’s health officer, the county has seen a 40% percent increase in positive COVID-19 cases since Halloween, growing to 1,075 as of Monday from 480 at the end of October.

“That’s not an uphill slope, that’s a vertical raise,” Dr. Stachon said Monday afternoon.

At the end of September, the rate of positive COVID-19 tests conducted in the county was less than 2%. Over the weekend, that number has incr...