Nashville to begin Phase 3 of reopening Monday, allowing bars and clubs to resume business

Nashville will enter Phase 3 of reopening Monday, Mayor John Cooper and health officials announced Thursday — despite the city's 14-day trend of cases heading upward. 

Coronavirus cases continued to rise in Nashville in recent weeks, prompting officials last week to "delay" the next stage of reopening the city to allow more time for the outbreak to subside.

The move to go forward to the next phase, decided by the city's COVID-19 task force, comes with three days of "stabilizing" after weeks of elevated cases in Nashville, officials say. 

The "14-day trend" and the virus “transmission rate" remain on yellow status on the city's key metrics dashboard. The transmission rate, which measures how many people get the virus from each infected person, is currently at "1," according to the city's COVID-19 site.

Officials have said the rate of transmission declining or remaining low is critical to proceeding to each stage of reopening the city.

And while data on the city's site shows 30% of ICU bed availability, as of publication, a press release from the mayor's office Thursday morning stated there were 18% available ICU beds, below the city's goal of 20%. The metric on the site, should be yellow as well. 

Officials say they will monitor data in the next few days heading into Monday. Nashville had been in Phase 2 of its "Roadmap for Reopening" since May 23.

"Over the course of those four weeks, we have learned a valuable lesson. Once we start on Phase 3, the prudent course of action will be to remain in Phase 3 for ... (a) complete cycle to learn and to make any course corrections necessary to maintain our economic reopening without having to revert to an earlier phase," Cooper said Thursday.

Metro reported 67 new cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 7,550 cases. Of those, 1,835 are active cases.

Task force chair Dr. Alex Jahangir reemphasized Thursday that "it's never been one metric" officials have focused on. 

While the 14-day trend is "heading upward" and he'd like to see the transmission rate be lowered, Jahangir noted stable hospitalization rates and the city building up a team of more than 125 contact tracers. 

Their work has found that recent spread in the current phase, has occurred largely in informal gatherings of people, rather than at businesses. Often, he said, it's when people get together with others they know, and feel more lax about proper social distancing. 

“And that is when infections happen," Jahangir said. "We will be living with COVID-19 for a while. So it does depend on all of us to have successful Phase 3. We'll need you to follow the guidelines. Please don't ruin it for everyone else."

Council members express concerns to move ahead

Health officials pivoted to their weekly call with council members after Thursday's morning press briefing, where several voiced their concern about moving ahead. 

"I think many of us feel like it's too soon to go to Phase 3, especially with the outbreak we've seen in Southeast Nashville,' said Council member Sandra Sepulveda, whose district is in the area that includes a large portion of the city's Hispanic and New Americans population. 

The city's COVID-19 "heat map" has consistently shown the area as a hot spot of cases. But the data shows where an individual with the virus resides, not where they may have contracted it. 

Sepulveda and others have repeatedly asked for more data, including more frequent racial breakdown of cases by zip code and also data broken down by industry to show what workplaces might be experiencing more cases. 

"Obviously something is not working. We need to find solutions sooner rather than later. That should have been done yesterday," Sepulveda told The Tennessean. "I looks like they're not going to be reconsidering moving ahead." 

She said officials on the call referenced some decision-making based on contact tracing finding spreads within households, as well as looking at the date of when tests were done, rather than the date the results come back. 

While appreciative of increased testing, she said several council members feel the goal-post keeps moving. As district representatives, she argues they are the closest to their constituents and should have more say in the process and transparency for the public. 

What's in Phase 3?

Under Phase 3, bars and other "socially-driven" businesses such as clubs, karaoke bars, transportainment and live event venues may reopen at half capacity. 

Restaurants and retail stores must continue at 75% capacity, though initial details for under phase 3 had looked to bring them to full capacity. Officials say the decision to stay at limited capacity came after evaluation and speaking with business owners that with proper social distancing, businesses could not operate at 100%. 

Bar areas at restaurants may open at 50% and there can be no parties of more than six people.

Salons, gyms and attraction sites such as museums, must stay at 50% capacity. Large entertainment and sports venues will remain closed. 

Gatherings are still recommended to be kept at 25 people or fewer,

Under Phase 3, employees are to be screened daily and required to wear face masks. People ages 65 and older and who are at elevated risk are asked to stay at home, and everyone is recommended to work from home if possible and to wear masks in public. 

Officials say they will monitor metrics for 14 days before they make a decision to move to Phase 4, which will open the city back up at full capacity. If there are continued outbreaks, the city can revert to earlier phases of the plan at any time. 

This story will be updated.

Yihyun Jeong covers politics in Nashville for USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE. Reach her at yjeong@tennessean.com and follow her on Twitter @yihyun_jeong.