Governor Bill Lee called for a special session of the Tennessee State Legislature to begin today. Lawmakers return to Nashville to discuss COVID-19 liability protections, telehealth services and laws governing State Capitol grounds. The first two items address the ongoing pandemic. Discussion on the third topic was promoted by ongoing protests, as activists have camped near the Capitol demanding an audience with Gov. Lee and racial reforms.

After Nashville Mayor John Cooper signed Metro Public Health Order 10 on Friday, open containers or consumption of alcoholic beverages outside permitted establishments in most of downtown and midtown have been prohibited. Sales of alcoholic beverages for on-premise consumption or as part of a delivery order are still allowed.

Metro Nashville

On Friday, Nashville had 22,446 confirmed COVID-19 cases. As of 9:30 today, the city reported 23,191 confirmed cases, an increase of 287 over the last 24 hours and of 745 since Friday morning. There are currently 3,076 active cases in Nashville (down slightly from Friday), 19,910 individuals who have recovered and 166 active hospitalizations (down 1 since Friday). With 205 deaths (an addition of 1 over the weekend), the city has a case fatality rate of 0.88% (down from 0.91% on Friday).

In Davidson County, 186,117 tests have been administered with a positive rate of 12.5% (up from 12.4% on Friday, 10.7% on July 1 and 9.4% on June 1). Of note, the 7-day average for positive tests is 12.8% as of today - up from 11.8% on Friday.

On the trend lines, the transmission rate is in the green. With a goal for transmission to be less than 1.0, the city has dropped to 0.80, down from the 0.99 rate that had held steady for more than a week. The 14-day case rate is also in the green with a decreasing trend in new cases. Public health and testing capacity remain in the green, as they have throughout. Hospital floor bed capacity remains in the yellow with 19% availability as of 9:30 am (up from 15% availability on Friday). ICU beds also remain in the yellow with 14% current capacity, the same as on Friday. The goal for both hospital and ICU bed capacity is 20%.

On the new trend lines, the New Cases per 100K Residents has returned to the red. The goal of the seven-day rolling average is to be at 10 or below (at which point the State of Tennessee will allow visitors to skilled nursing facilities). Currently, Nashville sits at 27.6 on this metric (up from 24.8 on Friday, when the metric was in the yellow). The other new trend line is the 7-Day Positivity Rate, which remains in the yellow. The goal is to see a 7-day positivity figure at 10% or less. Currently, Nashville is in the yellow with a rate of 12.8% (up 1% since Friday).

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

The state reports 123,914 cases of this afternoon, an increase of 1,202 since yesterday and more than 13,000 since this time last week. Tennessee has recorded 1,233 deaths (an increase of 10 since yesterday and 141 since last Monday). There have been 5,339 hospitalizations across Tennessee (up 35 in 24 hours and 531 in a week) and 83,170 have recovered (an increase of 2,173 since yesterday and more than 12,000 in a week). A total of 1,726,090 Tennesseans have been tested for COVID-19 (an increase of 14,771 since yesterday).

Despite rising case numbers and actual numbers of deaths, statewide death rates have held steady over the last week at 0.99. That figure is down from a death rate of 1.3 on July 1. TDH also reports stable hospital capacity. Currently, 21% of floor beds and 18% of ICU beds are available in the state. There are also more than 1,000 adult ventilators (68% of capacity) available as of today.