Updated Monday, 5:15 p.m. to include statement from Unified Command.
More people in Tennessee are confirmed to have the coronavirus right now than at any point during the pandemic, according to tracking by WPLN News.
The state has also seen an upward trend in new cases and hospitalizations in recent days. About two dozen additional patients enter a hospital each day, statewide.
While there have been more than 26,000 coronavirus cases in Tennessee as of Sunday, most people fully recovered weeks ago. So it’s becoming more important to watch the number of cases considered actively contagious. That number of “active” cases is as high as it’s ever been: 8,741, and it’s been rising for days.
Despite this, the state is continuing to lift restrictions on public gatherings, including issuing guidance late last week for fairs, expos and parades to resume.
“We expected to see a slight rise in cases as more businesses reopened and more individuals left their homes more frequently,” says Gillum Ferguson, spokesman for Tennessee’s Unified Command which is overseeing response to the coronavirus. “Thus far the rise is manageable and the rate of transmission and positivity rate have been relatively stable. We continue to watch the data closely to make the best decisions to maintain the health and well-being of Tennesseans.”
According to figures tracked by NPR, the coronavirus is surging in much of the Southeast, where states were among the first to reopen their economies. The hardest hit region of the Northeast is still seeing its rate of growth decline.
This chart shows a snapshot, through June 7, of “active” cases of the coronavirus in Tennessee. The blue line shows total active; the orange line shows a rolling 14-day average that is less influenced by extreme single-day changes.
Correction: This story and graphic originally provided too high of a count of active cases by failing to subtract 418 fatalities. Tennessee was at 8,741 active cases as of June 7.
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