Nashville Mayor Hopes To Gradually Reopen The City Next Month — But Only If Curve Is Flattening

Nashville Mayor John Cooper says he wants businesses in the city to start reopening in May. But he says that can only happen if a handful of conditions are met.

At Metro’s daily press briefing Tuesday morning, Cooper said social distancing measures could only be eased if the city adopts “robust” testing protocols, acquires the proper amount of protective gear and ramps up its contact tracing, in order to isolate anyone who may be a carrier of COVID-19. Cooper said businesses would also have to put protocols in place to keep people safe.

“There are a lot of common sense things that we can do that can also flatten the curve,” he said. “I think all these things happening together, with a reduction in the increase in cases, will allow the city and the state to get back to work. And it will probably be in a phased approach, over time, as we very carefully monitor what’s going on.”

Cooper said that the longer people stay home, the more intense the impact will be on the city’s revenue stream.

“We’re not going to be able to expand services. It’s going to be hard to keep everything in place,” he said.

But, unlike other cities that have reduced the size of their police forces during the coronavirus outbreak, the mayor said Metro is hoping to maintain the status quo in terms of government resources for now.

Cooper also asked Nashvillians to take their temperatures every day, in order to help officials identify cases and continue to flatten the curve.

According to the latest numbers from the mayor’s office, 1,457 people have tested positive for COVID-19, with 72 new cases in the past 24 hours. Three male residents died yesterday — a 41-year-old, a 75-year-old and an 82-year-old — all with underlying health conditions, bringing the county’s total to 16 deaths. About 60 residents have been hospitalized and 307 have recovered from the virus.

Alex Jahangir, chair of Metro’s coronavirus task force, said the city is working on a plan based on the data that’s available so far to determine when and how to gradually relax social distancing measures. However, he urged residents to “stay the course” and maintain efforts to slow the spread of the disease in full force, for the time being.