Metro Nashville

As of this morning, Nashville reported 5,147 confirmed cases, up 79 since yesterday. Alex Jahangir, MD, MMHC, chair of Metro Nashville Coronavirus Task Force, noted the 14-day rolling average of new cases remains flat. He said of the confirmed cases, 1,152 remain active with 3,937 Nashvillians now recovered from COVID-19. Davidson County has seen two deaths since Tuesday with the number now at 58. There have been 55,723 tests administered in Nashville - or 79.3 out of every 1,000 residents - with a positive rate of 9.2%, which is a decrease in the rate of 0.1% since Friday.

Jahangir noted, "A doubling rate of the virus is now 38.4 days. This means that it will take more than 38 days for the number of cases to double. This is an improvement from 29 days just seven days ago. The goal for this is 13 days or more so this is very encouraging."

Transmission rate remains slightly below one. "For us to get ahead of the virus, the number needs to be below one," Jahangir pointed out. Total number of hospital beds available is at 25% with ICU beds dipping from green to yellow at 22% availability.

"As we establish our reputation for safety, this puts us way ahead of many of our peer cities," said Mayor John Cooper of the amount of testing that has occurred. He noted Austin, Texas, has tested 15.3 out of every 1,000 residents, and Charlotte, N.C., has tested 18.6 out of every 1,000. "Nashville's 79.3 rate exceeds much larger cities like Chicago at 49 per 1,000, Washington, D.C., at 26, and even San Francisco, one of the nation's first COVID-19 hotspots, has tested just 67 out of every 1,000 residents," he outlined. "In fact of all the cities that I've mentioned, Nashville is the only one to meet the daily average testing threshold for reopening based on CDC and IHME data."

Paraphrasing Dr. James Hildreth, president and CEO of Meharry Medical College, Cooper noted we are, indeed, "fighting an invisible enemy made visible through testing and contact tracing." Cooper said the metrics remain encouraging with the 14-day new case trend remaining stable and hospital capacity being deemed satisfactory. "Public health will always be our priority," said Cooper, adding the city would revert to an earlier phase of the RoadMap for Reopening if necessary. "Remember to protect what we have achieved."

Health officials reminded everyone of the importance of continuing to wash hands regularly, maintain social distancing, wear masks in public and stay home when possible in order to maintain the green status of key metrics that will allow reopening of the economy to continue.

Tennessee State

As of today, the Tennessee Department of Health has confirmed 21,679 cases of COVID-19, an increase of 373 since yesterday. The number of deaths has risen to 356 (an increase of 3 since Wednesday). There are 1,689 hospitalizations across Tennessee (up 42 in 24 hours) and 14,632 recovered (an increase of 716 in 24 hours). The state's known hospitalization rate remains at 8% of confirmed cases. Deaths have hovered between 1.6-1.7% of confirmed cases. In the latest metrics, the death rate sits at 1.64. A total of 415.989 Tennesseans have been tested for COVID-19.