As of Wednesday, April 8, Nashville reports 1,140 confirmed cases with 65 confirmed in the last 24 hours. Davidson County has doubled the number of deaths from 6 to 12 over the last two days and have at least 45 patients hospitalized, although hospitals report significantly higher numbers of presumptive cases. Currently, there are 968 active cases and 160 recovered. There have been 11,757 tests administered in Davidson County with just under t a 10% positive rate (9.7% as of 4/8). The MPHD COVDI-19 Hotline received 286 calls yesterday. That number is 615.862.7777.

The mayor continues to urge all Nashvillians to begin wearing masks and face coverings in public. Mayor Cooper encouraged Nashvillians who are crafting and donating homemade masks to deliver their masks to the Community Resource Center, located at 218 Omohundro Place. Donations are accepted Monday through Friday, 9:00 am to 3:30 pm.

"Your donated masks will be distributed to essential personnel who are not healthcare workers or first responders but are nonetheless part of Nashville's citywide COVID-19 response to continue delivery critical services to Davidson County residents," said Mayor Cooper.

Anyone interested in learning how to make and donate homemade masks to support the COVID-19 response can visit covid19.nashville.gov.

Statewide, there are now 4,362 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state, a jump of more than 725 in two days. Of the reported cases, there are 449 known hospitalizations and 79 fatalities, along with 592 Tennesseans who have recovered. The Tennessee Department of Health has begun including race, ethnicity and gender statistics attached to the daily reports. However, the majority of cases are pending race verification. As of today, the reported racial breakdown of confirmed cases is 26.3% white, 7.34% black or African American, 2.43% other or multiracial, 0.73% Asian, and 63.37 percent pending.

The state attributes 946 cases to Davidson County* and 13 deaths, which is one more death than reported this morning during the mayor's press conference. Nationally, there are more than 425,000 cases of the coronavirus, and deaths in the U.S. have now topped 14,250, which is almost 4,000 additional deaths over the last two days. President Trump, along with the Surgeon General and members of the national task force, have said this week and next are expected to be 'extremely difficult' with a high number of deaths anticipated.

Tennessee has also received its first shipment of rapid tests from Abbot Labs with results in just a few minutes, which could help relieve backlog. While all the statistics presented daily are helpful, there remains a significant backlog of tests that have yet to be confirmed. On a personal note, I have a family member who was exposed in a healthcare setting (and has been in self-quarantine since then), who was tested 8 days ago but has yet to receive information on whether that test was positive or negative.

*County numbers typically differ from state numbers for two key reasons: 1) lab confirmations come to Metro Public Health first and are then reported to state so there is a time lag, and 2) the state counts cases by where the resident lives rather than where the case was confirmed (so visitors to Nashville and those who live in another county in the MSA but are tested in Nashville would not be in the Davidson County numbers released by the state).