Tennessee reports 1,032 new COVID-19 cases, 39 deaths on Sept. 12

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – The Tennessee Department of Health has confirmed additional cases and deaths related to COVID-19 across the state on Saturday, September 12.

The health department reported 1,032 new cases, bringing the state to 170,891 total cases, a 0.6% day-to-day increase since Friday. Of the total cases, 165,922 are confirmed and 4,969 are probable.

Tennessee’s seven-day new cases average now sits at 1,218 additional cases per day.

TDH also reported 39 additional deaths, bringing Tennessee up to 2,064 total deaths with 1,923 confirmed and 65 probable.

Out of the confirmed positive cases, 154,947 are inactive or have recovered, an increase of 2,273 inactive or recovered.

The latest number of hospitalizations went down by 3 to 805. A note on the department’s website states this total is an indication of the number of patients that were ever hospitalized during their illness and not an indication of the number of patients currently hospitalized.

Of the 170,891 cases, 82,381 are male (48%), 86,688 are female (51%), and 1,822 are pending (1%).

Tennessee has conducted 2,437,765 tests with 2,266,874 negative results. The percentage for positive cases remains around 7%. Saturday’s update added 22,236 tests to the state’s total.

COVID-19 in Nashville

Earlier Saturday, Metro Public Health Department officials reported an increase of 144 COVID-19 cases in Davidson County, bringing the county’s total to 27,014.

Nashville Mayor John Cooper announced Friday that Metro Public Health officials have approved an exception to extend bar and restaurant hours on Monday, September 14.

The move is to accommodate fans watching the Titans first game of the season on the road against Denver on Monday Night Football.

Broadway will be closed to traffic on weekend evenings throughout the month of September to allow more space for social distancing after crowds flocked to downtown Nashville over Labor Day weekend.

Football coaches in the Metro Nashville Public School system have been given approval to start contact practice Friday. Previously, district leaders said contact practice was on hold until COVID-19 conditions improved for the city.

TDH’s COVID-19 Reporting Format

On September 3, the Tennessee Department of Health announced changes to the format for sharing data on COVID-19, updating how some metrics are calculated, reflecting evolving knowledge of the pandemic.

The new format reflects a change in how active cases are calculated.

Under the new format, TDH case count reports will include figures for “Inactive/Recovered” cases and will no longer include data for “Recovered” cases. “Inactive/Recovered” cases will include people who are 14 days or more beyond their illness onset date (or, for asymptomatic cases, their specimen collection date). This will more closely align with what is now understood about the infectious period of COVID-19, as recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show most patients with COVID-19 are no longer infectious after 10 days. Previously, TDH considered a case recovered after a 21-day period.