Despite having a mask mandate, Nashville made national news over the weekend as crowds gathered downtown with few masks in sight. The United Way announced it is seeking donations for Nashville's COVID-19 Response Fund as a recent fifth round of grants to area nonprofits has nearly depleted the reserves. And confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths all rose significantly over the weekend. For more good news to start your week, see details below.
Metro Nashville
As of this morning, Nashville reports 17,836 confirmed cases of COVID-19, an increase of 1,304 cases over the weekend and jump of 416 in the last 24 hours. There are currently 5,856 active cases in Nashville (up 566 since Friday), 11,821 individuals who have recovered (up 733 over the weekend), and 202 active hospitalizations (up slightly over the weekend). With 159 deaths (up 5 from Friday), the city has a case fatality rate of 0.89%.
In Davidson County, 144,106 tests have been administered with a positive rate of 12.4% (up from 10.7% on July 1 and 9.4% on June 1). Of note, the 7-day average for positive tests is 15.4% (which is down from 17.3% on Friday).
On the trend lines, the transmission rate and 14-day new case trend both remain in the red. The goal for the transmission rate is to be less than 1.0 but is currently at a 1.2 transmission rate. On the plus side, however, hospital capacity for both floor beds and ICU beds has returned to green with both metrics having 21% of beds available. The other two capacity metrics - public health and testing - 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, Tennessee reports 79,754 cases of COVID-19, an increase of 1,639 since yesterday and just shy of 6,000 new cases since Friday afternoon. Tennessee has recorded 847 deaths (an increase of more than 150 since Friday). There have been 3,712 hospitalizations across Tennessee (up 31 in 24 hours) and 45,974 recovered (an increase of 1,655 since yesterday). A total of 1,214,383 Tennesseans have been tested for COVID-19 (an increase of 17,840 since yesterday).
Despite rising case numbers and actual numbers of deaths, statewide death rates have continued to drop, falling to 1.06 on Monday afternoon. That figure is down from a death rate of 1.2 on Friday, 1.3 on July 1, 1.46 the last week of June and 1.6 for much of the five weeks prior to that.
Donate to the Greater Nashville COVID-19 Response Fund
The United Way of Greater Nashville released the following statement from Brian Hassett, president and CEO of the organization. "We're all tired. This has gone on longer and affected many more people than any of could have anticipated. But we're not giving up. As long as there are people in need ... people in our community who are suffering from the effects of this virus, United Way will be here," Brian Hassett, president and CEO of United Way of Greater Nashville, said in a news release. "We're going to continue to work hard every day to bridge the gaps and to support our nonprofit partners and our neighbors to make sure we all make it through this together. But to do that, we need a lot more funding. We need a lot more of our local businesses, corporations and private foundations to step up and help our community weather this storm."
Approximately $160,000 of the $5.06 million fund remains. For information on how the funds have been used, please go to www.nashvilleresponsefund.com. To donate, please go to www.unitedwaynashville.org/donate.