County Mayor’s Notes – September 30th, 2020

An update concerning Governor Lee’s Executive Orders follows the COVID-19 update

COVID-19 Update (difference from previous day)
The following are the numbers from the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) for Cumberland County as of 2:00 PM today. The change from the prior day is in parenthesis.

COVID-19 is still a serious problem.  Now is not the time to let our guard down.  Please continue social distancing and making wise choices to help mitigate the spread of the virus.

82 active cases (-9)
1,223 inactive/recovered (+4)
19 deaths officially reported (+0)
1,223 positive cases (+0)
58 hospitalizations (+0) *
21,513 negative tests (+192)
91.74% Inactive/Recovered
5.15% cumulative positivity rate (positive cases / positive cases + negative tests)
2.02% of residents have tested positive
0.14% of residents have active cases

These numbers are intended to be a brief summary of the information provided by the Tennessee Department of Health. More detailed information can be found at the online dashboard: https://www.tn.gov/health/cedep/ncov.html

School level COVID-19 data is now available online.  Click this link to see the information available for Cumberland County:

https://districtinformation.tnedu.gov/covid-information/search/-1/180

* Hospitalization data reflect the cumulative (total) number of cases of Cumberland County residents that were ever hospitalized from COVID-19. It does not reflect the number of people currently hospitalized. This does not mean the patient was hospitalized in Cumberland County. It means that a Cumberland County resident was hospitalized at some point.

Update Concerning Governor Lee’s Executive Orders
As a National State of Emergency remains in place, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced today the State of Emergency in Tennessee will continue through October with adjustments made to previous executive orders.

Gov. Lee today signed Executive Order No. 63 to extend certain, targeted provisions of previous executive orders through October 30, including the authority of local governments to institute mask requirements. Remaining restrictions on businesses and gathering sizes in the 89 counties with a state-run health department have been removed.

Governor Lee also signed Executive Order No. 64, which extends through October 30 provisions that allow for remote notarization and witnessing of documents. Executive Order No. 60, which extends through October 28 provisions that allow for electronic government meetings subject to transparency safeguards, including the requirement of live broadcasts of electronic meetings to the public beginning October 1, remains in effect.

Executive Order No. 63 includes provisions that:

• Provide that persons with COVID-19 or COVID-19 symptoms are required to stay at home, and that employers may not require or allow employees with COVID-19 to work;
• Urge persons to wear a cloth face covering in places where in close proximity to others, while facilitating local decision-making concerning face covering requirements;
• Urge social distancing from those outside of your household, while eliminating caps on gathering size that have proven overly complex and arbitrary because they do not adequately account for critical considerations such as venue capacity and physical characteristics, type of activity involved, and location (indoors vs. outdoors), and thus undermine the more important focus on social distancing;
• Providing a framework for safe visitation for nursing home and long-term-care facilities;
• Allow for the reopening of senior centers, while providing that capacity must be limited to the extent necessary to accommodate adequate social distancing;
• Provide that employers, businesses, and venues are expected to comply with the Tennessee Pledge for operating safely (the 6 counties, not Cumberland, with locally run county health departments continue to have existing statutory authority to issue additional directives on businesses/venues);
• Continue access to take-out alcohol sales to encourage carryout and delivery orders;
• Allow broad access to telehealth services;
• Increase opportunities for people to easily join the healthcare workforce;
• Facilitate increased testing and health care capacity;
• Extend deadlines and suspend certain in-person continuing education, gathering, or inspection requirements to avoid unnecessary person-to-person contact; and
•  Increase opportunities to work remotely where appropriate.

Health Department Testing and Face Coverings
Masks/face coverings can help to slow the spread by slowing or stopping the droplets that carry the virus.  Free cloth masks are available upon request at the Health Department for those that want one. Stop by Monday through Friday from 8:00 am until 4:30 pm to pick one up for each individual in your household.

The local Health Department (1503 South Main Street) is conducting drive through testing, free of charge, Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM.   No doctor’s order is required, and no appointment is necessary. Anyone can be tested regardless of symptoms.

Thank you for being part of the solution and thank you for the opportunity to serve as your County Mayor.  If you are interested in hearing my thoughts and views on news, events, and activities in Cumberland County, please subscribe to my newsletter, and follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Thank you,

Allen Foster
Cumberland County Mayor
http://allenfoster.net