Metro Nashville
With key metrics in the green, Mayor Cooper announced yesterday the city would move to Phase II of reopening beginning Memorial Day. Notably, restaurants and retail can ramp up to 75% capacity and live music can return (but only two performers on stage and no dancing at this point). Hair salons, gyms and tourist attractions will be allowed to reopen at 50% capacity. Gatherings of 25 people or less (rather than 10 or less) will be allowed. Phase II of a four-phase plan is moving forward after city officials have monitored 14 days of metrics showing stable or declining COVID-19 burden. Phase I launched on May 11.
Today's roundup of case metrics has Nashville reporting 4,596 confirmed cases, an increase of 66 cases in 24 hours. During the briefing, it was reported 3,330 Nashvillians have recovered from COVID-19 with 1,214 cases still active. There have been 48,285 tests administered in Nashville with a positive rate of 9.3%, which is a decrease in the rate of 0.2% since Wednesday.
The number of deaths in Davidson County now sits at 52, up two since Wednesday.
Tennessee State
State numbers will be updated this afternoon. As of yesterday's report, the Tennessee Department of Health has confirmed 18,961 cases of COVID-19, an increase of 429 between Wednesday & Thursday). The number of deaths has risen to 313. There are 1,539 hospitalizations across Tennessee (up 24 in 24 hours) and 12,191 recovered (an increase of 408 in 24 hours). The state's known hospitalization rate remains at 8% of confirmed cases. Deaths continue to total just under 1.7 percent of reported cases.