The Governor announced 166 new cases of COVID-19 across the state Wednesday, which he says is still on track to show that cases have plateaued.
That 166 raises the overall total to 8,167, after duplicates—which include people from out of state—were removed from the total reported Tuesday. Governor Andy Beshear says 108 of those individuals are ‘probable’ cases, so those numbers could change as test results come in.
Testing continue to increase across the Commonwealth, with approximately 4,000 taking place from Tuesday to Wednesday—there have been 158,672 people tested for the virus and 2,919 people have recovered from the illness. The Governor announced 10 deaths, bringing that total to 376 since the pandemic began. The state reached out to 108 children who were reported as having COVID-19 as a check for symptoms of the inflammatory syndrome that appears to be related to the virus, and as of Wednesday, none of them were ill.
Public Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack says they continue to increase testing and aid to long term care facilities, and to communities that are seeing a surge in cases.
Starting Thursday, about $300 million in CARES Act funding will be available for eligible city and county governments, and Governor Beshear says this money will greatly help communities impacted by the pandemic.
The funds will be administered by the Department of Local Government and will be able to reimburse governments for a multitude of things, including purchasing of PPE, expenses for food delivery to nursing homes and vulnerable populations, improvements necessary for public employees to telework to comply with public health precautions, and payroll expenses for public safety, public health, health care, human services and similar employees.
Tennessee is at 18,532 confirmed cases, up 154 from Tuesday and gained four deaths to 309. Montgomery County remains at 216 cases, Robertson County gained three cases to 301 and Stewart County remains at eight.