Tennessee announced Tuesday that it has a total of 667 people diagnosed with the coronavirus. Even though the number of cases has increased, the percentage of people who have tested positive remains low.
Less than seven percent of tests conducted in Tennessee for the coronavirus have come back positive, according to numbers by the state’s department of health. This number is well below the national average of 14 percent, the COVID Tracking Project shows. Almost 360,000 tests have been conducted in the country.
So far, Tennessee has conducted 11,144 tests through the TN State Public Health Laboratory and private labs. It must be noted that private labs have performed 10,113 of the tests.
Furthermore, if Tennessee is compared New York, which is one of the hardest hit states in the country, it is doing quite well.
In New York, a total of 91,270 tests have been conducted, according to the COVID Tracking Project. Twenty-eight percent of people who have been tested have tested positive for the Chinese virus. Thus, New York state residents are over four times more likely to have the coronavirus than Tennesseans.
As of Tuesday night, Gov. Bill Lee has not announced a lockdown measure like 21 other states have issued.
Even though the governor has not taken “shelter in place” off the table, Lee has supported cities like Nashville and Tullahoma who have announced these measures.
Last week, a group of over 1,500 doctors sent a letter to the governor asking him to put a “shelter in place” for two weeks.
“We are many months away from having a vaccine or approved FDA treatment and there is a high likelihood of inadequate hospital and ventilator capacity. According to very conservative estimates 20% of our state’s population will become infected,” the letter states. “Based on hospital bed availability in Tennessee, we would surge above hospital and ICU bed capacity by 132% and 298%, respectively. Other estimates predict 40‐60% infectivity. This would prove disastrous.”
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of Star News Digital Media. If you have any tips, email Zachery at [email protected].
And the Dems what the Governor to institute mandatory lock-down for the whole state. As usual, penalize the many of the actions of the few. They are working overtime to destroy our economy so they can rebuild it to their own liking. Just look at the nonessential crap in Pelosi’s bill. Totally shameful.