(Mike Osborne) — The latest Tennessee COVID-19 numbers were released Wednesday and they’re a mixed bag.
The Tennessee Health Department data shows new infections were up statewide last week, with some 11,000 new cases reported.
However, the pace of the increase has slowed dramatically. During the month of May, new infections jumped an average of 30 percent every seven days. This past week, new case counts increased by just 8 percent.
Hospitalizations were also up, rising 32 percent in just one week.
Virus related deaths, however, dropped sharply last week. Fatalities statewide fell from more than 100 deaths two weeks ago, to just 15 deaths in all of Tennessee this past week.
Meanwhile, Nashville appears to be bucking the Tennessee trend toward higher rates of COVID-19 infection.
New infection counts began rising in Metro in early April, as they did throughout the state. But Metro’s new case counts reversed course two weeks ago and began to fall.
The change is small. New infections across Nashville fell by just three percent two weeks ago, and another one percent this past week.