As Nashville logged in nearly 1,000 new cases today and the state nears 4,000 deaths from COVID, a bit of good news! The Tennessee Department of Health announced the state has been chosen as one of four states to participate in a pilot program for delivery of the Pfizer Inc. COVID-19 vaccine, which is now under development. This program is designed to address distribution challenges posed by requirements for ultra-cold storage of the vaccine.

"We have a robust plan in place for distribution of this vaccine, and we're honored to be chosen to help establish a model for other states in providing COVID-19 vaccine to their residents once it's approved," said Tennessee Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey, MD, MBA, FAAP.

Tennessee will participate in the pilot along with New Mexico, Rhode Island and Texas, states chosen based on their differences in size, population diversity and immunization infrastructure. Lessons learned through this program will help support all states in development of effective immunization programs for this COVID-19 vaccine.

Metro Nashville

As of 9:30 today, the city reported 41,411 confirmed cases, an increase of 978 since yesterday. There are currently 4,135 active cases in Nashville (an increase of 474 since yesterday), 36,930 inactive or recovered cases (up 503 since yesterday) and 319 active hospitalizations (an increase of 7 in the last 24 hours). With 346 deaths, the city has a case fatality rate of 0.84%. In Davidson County, 600,911 tests have been administered with an overall positive rate of 8.4% (and a 7-day testing percent positive of 8.9%).

Out of 8 metrics on the trend lines, Nashville has 3 in the green, 2 in the yellow and 3 in the red - transmission rate, 14-day new case trend and new cases per 100,000 residents. With a goal for transmission to be less than 1.0, the city's current transmission rate is 1.17 (no change from yesterday). The 14-day case trend is in the red with new cases rising. Public health and testing capacity remain in the green, as they have throughout.

As of 9:30 am this morning, hospital floor bed capacity remained in the yellow with 16% availability (down from 18% yesterday), and ICU beds remain in the yellow after being in the red last week with current availability at 12% capacity (down from 14% yesterday). The goal for both hospital and ICU bed capacity is 20%.

The New Cases per 100K Residents has remained in the red for the last few weeks. The goal of the seven-day rolling average is to be at 10 or below. Currently, Nashville sits at 64.9 as of 9:30 am this morning (up from 54.6 yesterday and 49.6 on Friday morning). The goal for the 7-Day Positivity Rate is to see a figure at 10% or less. Currently, Nashville remains in the green with a rate of 8.9% (up from 8.5% yesterday).

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

Nashville remains in Phase 3 of COVID Reopening. The city also continues its mask mandate, with several nearby counties having reinstated similar mandates after letting them expire earlier. Governor Bill Lee extended the Tennessee State of Emergency tied to COVID-19 through Dec. 29.

Tennessee State

Nashville made up more than half of the new cases reported statewide today. As of this afternoon, the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) confirmed an additional 1,841 new cases of COVID-19 with the state total hitting 320,729. Today, there are 1,929 hospitalizations (up 95 since yesterday) and 3,995 deaths (up 72 in 24 hours) for a death rate of 1.25. A little more than 4.1 million tests have been administered statewide (up 14,098 since yesterday) with a 13.22% positive rate for the day. The number of inactive/recovered cases statewide is 276,497.