Question: How is Tennessee looking?

Answer: Tennessee (my home state) has been lucky so far in having avoided any major spike in cases and deaths. But the trends of the last few days are not as promising as the trends of earlier May, particularly with regard to daily cases and hospitalizations (Figure 1).

• Daily deaths from COVID-19 were the highest in early April (58 deaths the week of April 5th) and have since remained relatively flat at around 35 deaths/week except the week of May 10th, which saw 53 deaths.
• Daily hospitalizations peaked in early May and fell through May 24th. Since then, however, hospitalizations have been on the rise. Currently, Tennessee is seeing an average of 25 people/day hospitalized.
• Daily cases have also been on the rise since mid-May with a current average of 421 new cases identified each day.
• The rise in cases is occurring alongside a decrease in daily tests. The percentage of tests that are positive currently averages 5.6% and has been increasing since a low of 3.2% on May 10th (data not shown).

Figure 1. Daily Deaths, Hospitalizations, Cases, and Tests in Tennessee