Davidson County Officials Still Can’t Back up Claim that Surrounding Counties Had More Confirmed COVID-19 Cases

 

As of press time Monday, Davidson County officials still would not demonstrate precisely how “surrounding counties” had more confirmed COVID-19 cases than Davidson itself did, as they attested last Friday

Metro Coronavirus Task Force Chair Alex Jahangir said at a press conference Friday that Davidson County had 2,832 confirmed COVID-19 cases. Jahangir also said there were an additional 3,227 cases in the surrounding counties — an increase of 955 in one day. Now, for the first time – Jahangir went on to say – the surrounding counties had more cases than Davidson County.

However Davidson County officials would not break those numbers down county-by-county.

As reported, Trousdale County had 1,344 reported COVID-19 cases at its Trousdale Turner Correctional Facility. Davidson County officials told The Tennessee Star last weekend that, yes, they did count Trousdale County and the confirmed COVID-19 numbers at its prison.

Trousdale County does not border Davidson County.

Brian Todd at the Metro Health Department said Sunday that Jahangir referred to counties in Tennessee’s Mid-Cumberland Region when he made that claim.

Yes, Every Kid

The Tennessee Star published a story Monday that incorrectly stated that the Mid-Cumberland Region consisted of seven counties in addition to Davidson: Dickson County, Montgomery County, Robertson County, Rutherford County,  Stewart County, Williamson County, and Wilson County. In fact, the Mid-Cumberland Region consists of five additional counties, for a total of 12 counties: Cheatham, Humphries, Houston, Sumner – and Trousdale.

Six of those 12 counties do not border Davidson.

“The statement made by Dr. Jahangir on Friday is accurate and is based on data received by the Metro Public Health Department directly from the Tennessee Department of Health,” said Chris Song, spokesman for Nashville Mayor John Cooper, in an email to The Star Monday.

The email did include state Health Department spokesman Todd along with Song from the Mayor’s office.

So, taking that into account, will county officials finally break down the numbers and explain how they got to 3,227 cases in the counties surrounding Davidson?

In reply to a follow up question requesting a detailed breakdown, Song responded, “Please direct your inquiry to the Tennessee Department of Health.”

This is a developing story.

– – –

Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].

 

 

Related posts

One Thought to “Davidson County Officials Still Can’t Back up Claim that Surrounding Counties Had More Confirmed COVID-19 Cases”

  1. Tommy

    Cooper has the chance to be one of Nashvilles best or worst mayors…he is trending towards the latter. Dr. Jahangir can’t get through a sentenceceithout stumbling and he never has a direct answer.
    These 2 together are terrible for Nashville.
    Open up!

Comments