Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee issued a non-mandated, statewide “Safer At Home” order Monday afternoon “to protect the lives of Tennesseans.” The order came an hour after the Tennessee Department of Health reported over 1,800 COVID-19 cases.
Lee ordered that all non-essential businesses close statewide and urged Tennesseans to stay at home and only leave if it is absolutely necessary. He said he wanted to continue to protect Tennesseans’ freedom, but also wanted to remind them of the responsibility each has to do their part in the fight against the spread of COVID-19.
“With personal liberty comes personal responsibility,” Lee said.
The order is the same as the one issued by City of Jackson Mayor Scott Conger last week. Conger began a Facebook Live Q & A about 30 minutes after Lee issued his order during a media briefing.
The Tennessee Department of Health confirmed there were over 1,800 positive cases of COVID-19 in the state as of 2 p.m. Monday.
According to data from the department, there are 1,834 COVID-19 cases in Tennessee. There were 148 hospitalizations and 13 COVID-19 deaths in the state. Part of that rise in numbers was a COVID-19 outbreak that occurred at a Gallatin nursing home, where 74 residents and 33 staff tested positive for the novel coronavirus and had to be evacuated Sunday. Two fo those residents are reported to have died.
NewsChannel 5 is reporting that the total of COVID-19 cases in the state is currently at 1,928 and that there have been 13 COVID-19 deaths.
The news station is keeping an independent count of cases in the state, using information from both the TN Dept. of Health and local health agencies.
The TN Dept. of Health said online the data on their website “changes rapidly as labs conduct tests and identify new cases. Labs assign those cases to a county or leave that information blank. Metro and regional health departments then determine the appropriate county of jurisdiction during their public health investigation…Cases among Tennessee residents are counted by their county of residence.”
The U.S. has 156,951 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to data from the Center of System Science and Engineering from John Hopkins University. There are 2,880 deaths reported, with 5,579 recoveries.