Gatherings during the holiday weekend have Nashville health officials concerned the city will lose the progress it’s made against the coronavirus.
Metro reports more than 150 new cases over the past day. They also say that they received more than 95 complaints about poor social distancing or unavailable protective equipment over the weekend.
“Let me just emphasize to you businesses that choose not to follow the rules — you are putting the public’s health at risk,” says Dr. Michael Caldwell, Nashville’s public health director. “And I want you to know that while we are in an educational phase right now, we expect cooperation and compliance.”
Caldwell says prohibited gatherings — including dancing at bars — are linked to the greatest risk of community transmission of the virus.
He says he visited Nashville’s tourism district on Memorial Day and found that most businesses on Lower Broadway were in compliance with the city’s mandate that employees must wear masks, but still expressed frustration that there were a number people not following the rules.
He says Metro will ramp up its enforcement when they receive more than one complaint for the same location.
“COVID-19 is still out there. We are far from finished with this,” says Dr. Alex Jahangir, director of Metro’s Coronavirus Response Task Force. “We have to take this seriously or we will see new spikes in cases if we are not careful.”
Although Nashville is well into its reopening phase, Jahangir says residents should still stay at home when possible, wear face masks and practice social distancing when in public.
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