Nashville's Officially In Phase 3 Of Reopening Today & Here's What That Means For You

Mayor John Cooper of Nashville held a press conference this morning, Monday, June 22, regarding moving forward with the city's reopening plans. Nashville and Davidson County enter phase 3 today. With it comes some changes, and here's what the new phase means for you.

"Starting today, we will begin Phase 3 of our roadmap for reopening Nashville. Our 14-day case average is trending upward, but our testing capacity continues to increase and more than 81,000 Nashvillians have received the COVID-19 test," Mayor Cooper stated. 

A few changes residents and visitors can expect to see include increased capacity allowed in restaurants, bars, retail establishments, camping sites, and gyms. 

Retail stores, commercial businesses, and restaurants can now operate at 75% capacity, with employees still wearing masks and being screened daily. 

Gyms, bars, public pools, travel tours, small entertainment, and event venues can operate at 50%. As long as shared items are sanitized between uses, bars can open access to darts, pool tables, and other bar games again.

Playgrounds, dog parks, basketball courts, picnic shelters, sports fields, and skateparks can also open with guidance and approval from the Parks Department and the Health Department.

Residents of Davidson County are encouraged to still wear face masks in public and to work from home whenever possible.

The phase 3 road map on Asafenashville.org lists additional guidelines for businesses operating during the pandemic, as well as suggestions to help the public continue to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

They suggest wearing a mask any time you're out in public, social distancing at all times, continuing to wash your hands, remaining at home or working from home whenever possible, and limiting gatherings to 25 people or less. 

The city plans on staying in phase 3 for at least 28 days, according to News 4 Nashville, giving two virus life cycles for officials to evaluate data and decide whether to shift into reverse or continue driving forward on the reopening roadmap.

According to The Tennessee Government's COVID-19 Unified Command dashboard, there've been 7,716 confirmed cases in Nashville's Davidson County; total cases across the state have reached 35,102, of which 526 have died as of June 21.