Nashville has officially moved into Phase 3 of the reopening plan with an expectation the city will remain in this phase for four weeks. Both the transmission rate and 14-day new case trend have slipped to yellow. Public health capacity, testing capacity, hospital floor bed capacity and hospital ICU bed capacity have all remained in the green.

Metro Nashville

On June 23, the city reports 8,258 confirmed cases of COVID-19 - an increase of 76 in the last 24 hours. There are currently 1,992 active cases in Nashville, 6,183 individuals who have recovered, and 92 deaths.

In Davidson County, 83,080 tests have been administered with a positive rate of 10% (up from 9.4% on June 1).

The mayor and health officials declined to make wearing masks mandatory, in part because they said it would be an unenforceable mandate. Instead, they've asked everyone to take personal responsibility to wear masks in public, continue social distancing measures, go out as little as possible, wash hands frequently and stay home if ill.

There were multiple citations across the city for noncompliance in Phase 2. Steve Smith, owner of a number of downtown honky-tonks has launched an ad campaign calling out Mayor Cooper and Metro Health Director Dr. Caldwell for what he perceives as unfair restrictions. Kid Rock's Honky Tonk, of which Smith is an owner, was cited by Caldwell a little more than a week ago for serving people at the bar and not maintaining proper distance between patrons.

Pointing to recent protests in Nashville (and across the country), Smith said those outdoor crowds also ran afoul of Phase 2 regulations without any consequence. Through his lawyer, Smith said the restaurant citations amounted to "selective prosecution" and has vowed to litigate the matter.

Tennessee State

The state continues to see an increase in COVID-19 cases, as well. As of this afternoon, the state had confirmed 36,303 cases, an increase of 750 since yesterday, and has recorded 542 deaths (up 11 in 24 hours). There are 3,336 hospitalizations across Tennessee (up 35 in 24 hours) and 24,068 recovered (an increase of 501 in 24 hours). A total of 705,164 Tennesseans have been tested for COVID-19 (an increase of 5,310 since yesterday).

Statewide death rates, which had held steady between 1.6 and 1.7, have dropped over the last few weeks to 1.5 (1.49 to be precise).