SEVIER COUNTY, Tenn — When Tina Johnson decide on Gatlinburg, she was expecting cool weather and fresh mountain air.
But upon her arrival, she noticed crowds of people too.
"So many people here and hardly anyone is wearing masks," Johnson told 10News. "Nobody is social distancing, which is a bit frightening."
She was visiting from Charleston, South Carolina, where she said most people still wear masks and crowds over 10 are prohibited. Johnson said Sunday afternoon in Gatlinburg was not what she's used to.
"We're trying to do our part wearing our masks, we certainly don't want to spread anything to anybody else," she said. "It would be really appreciated if everybody was that considerate to others, but [they're] not. So we're just kind of doing our own thing."
In tourism-driven Sevier County, confirmed cases of COVID-19 have tripled have tripled since Memorial Day, according to a 10News review of data from the Tennessee Department of Health.
Five new hospitalizations have been reported since June 4, though it is unclear whether those patients are still in the hospital.
Sevier County's total number of confirmed cases as of June 14 is 217.
"We are a little concerned," said Johnson. "We're just kind of doing our own thing, picking and choosing which places we go to. We've done a lot of outside activities."
Despite the rising number of cases, some visitors were glad to see so many people.
"We're just enjoying each other's company and enjoying the places that we can go into and be totally normal," Janet Gurwell said.
She has driven down to Gatlinburg from Virginia multiple times since mid-March. She said the state's relaxed rules have influenced her decision to come.
"Your area [Sevier County] seems to be one of the more sensible ones in the country," Gurwell said, adding that she believes the virus is an individual problem. "It's not the responsibility of everybody else in the country to worry about individual issues."
10News asked Tennessee's Unified Command Group whether they were concerned about the rising numbers in Sevier County.
"As more businesses reopened and more individuals left their homes more frequently, we expected to see a rise in cases and hospitalizations in Tennessee," said Dean Flener, the spokesperson for the UCG. "Thus far the rise is manageable and the rates of transmission and positivity have been relatively stable."
In Sevier County, however, a 10News review of state data found both of those numbers are rising.
For the week ending on June 14, the county's average daily transmission rate per 100,000 residents was 15.3, up from 3.6 for the week ending on June 7.
The percentage of total tests that have come back positive is now at 3.76 percent, up from 2.45 percent the week before. It has risen every single day since June 7.