In his morning press conference, Mayor John Cooper called on state and national leaders to create a more unified approach to the pandemic, rather than the current patchwork of rules and regulations that vary from city to city and state to state. He also noted the effectiveness of wearing masks, noting New York saw a 3% decrease in daily infections once a mask mandate went into effect.

Metro Nashville

As of this morning, Nashville reports 16,079 confirmed cases of COVID-19, a jump of 322 cases in 24 hours. There are currently 5,082 active cases in Nashville, 10,746 individuals who have recovered, and 151 deaths (up 3 from yesterday). The Metro COVID-19 Dashboard lists 204 active hospitalizations (down 2 since yesterday).

In Davidson County, 131,824 tests have been administered with a positive rate of 12.2% (up from 12.1% yesterday, 11.6% last Friday, 10.7% on July 1 and 9.4% on June 1). Of note, the 7-day average for positive tests is 18%.

On the trend lines, the transmission rate and 14-day new case trend both remain in the red. Hospital capacity for floor beds has dropped to 18%, pushing that metric to yellow. The other capacity metrics - public health, testing and ICU beds remain in the green.

More detailed data is available on the Metro Dashboard. Click here for details.

Masks are required in Nashville, and a number of other surrounding counties have also begun instituting mandatory mask regulations. Additionally, public health officials continue to ask (beg) residents to be vigilant in maintaining social distancing measures, as well as to go out as little as possible, wash hands frequently and stay home if ill. Metro police are authorized to issue civil citations to those who fail to comply with the mask mandate unless the individual has a specific exemption.

Tennessee State

This afternoon, the state reports 71,540 confirmed COVID-19 cases, an increase of 2,479 since yesterday. Additionally, 41,250 have now recovered (up by 1,393 in the last 24 hours), 3,497 have been hospitalized (up 63 since yesterday), and 796 deaths have been reported (up 13 since yesterday). There have been 1,123,038 individuals tested for the coronavirus, which is an addition of 25,985 in a day.

The death rates stands at 1.11%, which has dropped a bit over the last few weeks and is significantly lower than many other states with comparable cases as a percent of population. The overall U.S. death rate sits at 3.93% (136,938 deaths out of 3,483,832 total cases as of 12:15 pm today).