Tennessee is seeing a lower number of new coronavirus cases, with 1,001 reported on Tuesday. It’s the smallest one-day increase in the last month. But hospitalizations and fatalities continue to rise.
While the 14-day rolling average of cases is down to less than 1,900, Tennessee just had its biggest one-day bump in people being admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 with 125. And 38 new deaths are attributed to the pandemic, which brings the rolling average to a new high.
Hospitalizations and fatalities have tended to lag surges in new cases, since patients often fall ill well before going to the hospital, where they can then spend weeks on ventilator. And these critical cases are now more likely to be found in rural areas rather than urban. West Tennessee, in particular, is being hit harder than any part of the state.
This week, Vanderbilt University’s health policy department released an analysis showing that hospitalizations are more prevalent in regions where masks have not been mandated, which includes many counties in West Tennessee.
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