COVID-19 reached Tennessee two years ago today
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Saturday marks two years since the Tennessee Department of Health announced the first COVID-19 case in the state.
Health officials confirmed the first case in Tennessee on March 5, 2020. The patient was a 44-year-old man from Williamson County who had traveled out of state on a nonstop round-trip flight between Boston, Massachusetts and Nashville International Airport.
The announcement came just one day after Gov. Bill Lee announced the creation of the coronavirus task force.
Since the first case of COVID-19 was reported, there have been more than 2 million cases of COVID-19 in Tennessee and more than 24,000 deaths, according to data provided by the Tennessee Health Department.
Tennessee Department of Health’s Dashboard shows that 9,216,645 vaccines have been given out in Tennessee. Currently, 52.7% of the Volunteer State’s population is fully vaccinated.
With COVID-19 mandates and restrictions slowly declining, many Tennesseans may think the days of worrying about COVID-19 are over. However, some health professionals warn “not so fast.”
Dr. Britt Maxwell, an internal medicine specialist at Ascension Saint Thomas West in Nashville, says although numbers are showing a downward trend, the future of COVID-19 still remains uncertain.
“No one really knows what the future is going to bring at this point,“ Maxwell said. “We would love to think that what we are seeing now means the end of the pandemic and that we could move forward, but what we’ve learned is that coronavirus has surprises for us all.”
Data presented by the Tennessee Department of Health’s County Data Snapshot shows Shelby County accounts for the most COVID-19 cases in Tennessee with 11.5% of COVID-19 cases statewide. Pickett County accounts for the least COVID-19 cases in Tennessee with 0.1% of COVID-19 cases statewide.
