NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – The Tennessee Department of Health has confirmed additional cases and deaths related to COVID-19 across the state on Wednesday, August 12.
The health department reported 1,478 new cases, bringing the state to 126,393 total cases, a 1% day-to-day increase since Tuesday. Of the total cases, 124,391 are confirmed and 2,002 are probable.
Tennessee’s seven-day new cases average now sits at 1,756 additional cases per day.
TDH also confirmed 18 additional deaths, bringing Tennessee up to 1,289 total deaths.
Out of the confirmed positive cases, 87,290 have recovered, an increase of 1,977 recoveries.
The latest number of hospitalizations went up by 90 to 5,554. A note on the department’s website states this total is an indication of the number of patients that were ever hospitalized during their illness and not an indication of the number of patients currently hospitalized.
Of the 126,393 cases, 61,509 are male (49%), 63,587 are female (50%), and 1,297 are pending (1%).
Tennessee has conducted 1,757,690 tests with 1,631,297 negative results. The percentage for positive cases remains around 7.2%. Wednesday’s update added 18,815 tests to the state’s total.
COVID-19 in Nashville
Earlier Wednesday, Metro Public Health Department officials reported 23,434 cases of COVID-19 in Davidson County.
On July 28, Nashville Mayor John Cooper announced the order closing all bars in Nashville and requiring restaurants serving alcohol to shut down by 10 p.m. daily has been extended through at least mid-August.
All “transpotainment” vehicles are banned from the streets of Nashville and Davidson County as of July 31, regardless of whether there is alcohol on-board, according to the Metro Public Health Department.
Metro Police said they will issue citations to anyone who defies Metro Public Health orders by not wearing masks. The news comes after weeks of criticism aimed at Nashville leaders for not ticketing crowds of maskless people partying downtown.
Metro police issued 42 citations and arrested four people for violating Nashville’s mask mandate during the department’s first weekend of enhanced enforcement on Broadway. Twenty of those citations were written Friday and 18 were issued Saturday, police said. They added one arrest was made Friday, while the other three were Saturday.
On August 7, Cooper announced Public Health Order 10 that prohibits open consumption, possession, and late-night to-go sales of alcoholic beverages in downtown and midtown Nashville.
East Nashville House Party Investigation
Two men have been charged for their alleged roles in hosting an East Nashville house party attended by hundreds of people earlier this month. Videos circulated on social media showing the party on Fern Avenue held the night of Aug. 1, billed as “The Fashion House,” where hundreds of attendees appeared crammed together, with no masks in sight.
Schools Moving Forward
On July 28, Governor Bill Lee announced the State of Tennessee’s recommendations to reopen schools for the 2020-2021 school year. The governor’s plan for re-opening schools is getting criticized by some state leaders.
Last week, the Williamson County School district started the year with one of its campuses closed when it was scheduled to have students learning in-person.
Putnam County Schools released an update on August 7 regarding the first week of school during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Director of Schools Corby King, one student at Cookeville High School this week tested positive for COVID-19 and was in close contact with other students. Those students have been reportedly contacted and have been placed on a 14-day quarantine.
Coffee County Schools has moved to a hybrid schedule due to an increase in active COVID-19 cases. The school board also announced mask requirements for all employees, students, and visitors starting on August 12.
On Monday, Rutherford County Schools announced two employees at Christiana Middle School tested positive for COVID-19, and the school would transition to all distance-learning starting the first day of school, August 13 through August 21.
In Davidson County, Metro Nashville Public School leaders discussed the challenges of making the safest plans for students and teachers during a board meeting on August 11. Metro will have virtual-learning through at least Labor Day.
Also on Tuesday, the Department of Education released a new online dashboard to help track a school’s status on offering in-person learning, virtual learning, or a hybrid.
News 2 digs deeper into how schools are moving forward safely for the new academic year. See how other districts around Middle Tennessee are handling everything from classroom concerns to the future of sports in our special series. Click here to see more.
COVID-19 & Sports
High School Sports
Gov. Lee announced Executive Order No. 55 would include Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association member schools in an exception to contact sports restrictions. He officially signed the order on July 31.
A day after Lee’s announcement, school leaders in Davidson sent out a letter to all schools in the county asking to cancel all sports and extracurricular activities until after Labor Day.
On August 10, Cheatham County Central High School announced the football team had two confirmed COVID-19 cases. CCCHS has stopped football practices for now, and are scheduled to resume August 19.
College Sports
On Tuesday, the Big 10 and the Pac-12 became the first two Power Five conferences to postpone fall sports.
Later on Tuesday, both the SEC and ACC released statements announcing, as of now, their plans to stay on course with their current plans for the season.
It’s a season of change for football. From the NFL to high school, News 2 digs deeper into the impact COVID-19 is having on the game.
Click here for our special reports
Tennessee’s COVID-19 Response
Dr. Deborah Birx met with Governor Lee in Nashville on July 27. The Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force called for all Tennessee counties to issue mask mandates. Several counties have issued mask requirements around the state already.
A number of retailers and restaurants are also requiring masks while visiting their stores. See a full list of locations here.
On Monday, Vanderbilt released a new modeling report which shows the relationship between face mask mandates and hospitalization rates in Tennessee.
In June, the Tennessee Department of Health announced changes to its format for sharing COVID-19 data. The department’s total number of cases and total deaths now include both laboratory-confirmed cases and probable cases as defined in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveillance case definitions. – Learn more about the changes here.
