After 53 days in quarantine, Nashville will move to Phase One of Mayor John Cooper’s plan to reopen the city’s economy, at least partially, this coming Monday.
Cooper wasted no time announcing this while opening a press conference Thursday.
“This is not a broad reopening. It is a more targeted next phase of response to the disease. The goal is to get us gently back to work while managing the presence of the disease in our community,” Cooper said.
Cooper said Nashville residents and officials will have to learn, adjust, and make difficult choices as they try to revive the city’s economy.
“We have a passing grade from our health benchmarks, but not a completely perfect grade. We aren’t pretending to be perfect in passing this test. Positive cases will naturally trend up with increased testing. But we have successfully protected our hospital capacity,” Cooper said.
“Last week on April 30 we were supposed to have opened the Music City Center as an emergency 1,400 bed hospital, and it’s a prayerful event that that didn’t happen. Our hospitalization and mortality rates are relatively low. Our transmission rate could be better, but is still around one after several weeks. The time for the disease to double is flat, always an important public health metric.”
Also at the press conference, Metro Coronavirus Task Force Chair Alex Jahangir said COVID-19 claimed the life of two more Davidson County residents, a 74-year-old man and a 75-year-old woman. Both had underlying health conditions. As of Thursday, the virus had killed 35 county residents, he said.
As The Tennessee Star reported last month, Cooper issued a four-phased plan to reopen Nashville’s economy.
According to ASafeNashville.org, for each of the four phases Nashville is in, city officials will only advance to the next phase if the area meets one of two benchmarks. The website said either the number of COVID-19 cases in Davidson County must remain stable or the number must decline over a 14-day period.
Jahangir said city officials will slow the process down “if something worrisome presents in those metrics.”
According to Jahangir, the four phases involve the following:
• In Phase One retail businesses will open and restaurants will have dine-in services, all at half-capacity and added guidelines and restrictions and operations will be present. Employees will be screened daily to ensure that they are symptom free and they will be required to wear cloth face coverings. Other public gatherings will be limited to 10 people or less. Everyone out in public should wear cloth masks and, if you are able, still work from home.
• In Phase Two, businesses and restaurants can go to three-quarters capacity with certain guidelines. In addition, personal hygiene businesses like hair and nail salons will open but only for appointments, no walk-ins, and limited to 10 people inside the building at one time. Playgrounds, tennis courts, and basketball courts will open. Other public gatherings, including worship services, will be limited to 50 people and with adherence to strict physical distancing protocols.
• In Phase Three businesses and restaurants will go to full capacity. In addition, bars and entertainment venues will open at half capacity. Gyms and fitness facilities will open. Other gatherings will be limited to 100, again with adherence to strict physical distancing protocols.
• In Phase Four, bars and entertainment venues will be at full capacity, and sport venues will open with adherence to physical distancing protocols and best practices.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “John Cooper” by John Cooper.
[…] The Tennessee Star reported Friday, after days in quarantine, Nashville will move to Phase One of Cooper’s plan to reopen the […]
There’s not enough money to run the city! Well then, let’s keep all our businesses closed so many will make less money or close permanently and hundreds of thousands will be out of work. (Even though many scientists and doctors say what’s being done isn’t the way to beat the virus). Meanwhile, let’s raise the Metro property taxes 32%!
Progressive stupidity knows no bounds.
Isn’t it really big of small man Cooper to allow us to try to earn a living, only so he can step on out throat with a 30% tax increase. Welcome to the **It city!
The scamdemic power hungry elf has spoken ! Mr Tax and Spend.
Amazing how so many overpaid, over-credentialed politicians, professors, doctors, et al, demonstrate such a void and complete disconnection with reality. Years of mainstream brainwashing is very effective at dis-allowing these folks from considering ‘front line’ facts regarding the COVID19 virus. There are scores of clear thinking doctors and nurses that have come forward with example after example of disinformation and misdirection from WHO, Fauci, Gates, etc.
Are they also on the payroll?
It’s my body. It’s my decision. To reopen