COVID-19 Shows Up In 43 New Tennessee Nursing Homes

An additional 43 long-term care facilities in Tennessee are reporting cases of COVID-19 now that the state mandates weekly testing of employees.

The state updates its tracking page each Friday. Many of the new facilities have just a handful of cases, some just among staff. But the big uptick represents a roughly 40% jump in the number of nursing homes and assisted living facilities reporting clusters.

The Tennessee Department of Health cites “multiple factors,” including the general rise in community transmission across the state and the required weekly testing of staff members since July 1.

So far, 282 long-term care residents in Tennessee have died from the coronavirus, according to a database kept by Brett Kelman of The Tennessean. The state Department of Health no longer reports a cumulative total. Rather, the state reports the numbers in facilities only if they have cases considered to be active. 

In all, nearly 3,000 long-term care staff and residents have tested positive for the coronavirus.