Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) dismissed Dr. Deborah Birx’s suggestion that he consider shutting down bars and limiting indoor dining capacity at restaurants due to the surge in coronavirus cases in his state.
The White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator traveled to Tennessee on Monday to discuss the state’s increase in coronavirus cases.
As Tennessee has over 96,000 reported cases, Birx warned that data suggests rural Tennessee is seeing a spread of the virus as well, not just the cities.
Without stricter measures to mitigate the spread of the virus, Tennessee could be faced with a situation similar to other states battling surges in cases.
“It is at this very moment where we could change the trajectory of the epidemic before it goes into full of what we call logarithmic spread, as we’ve seen across the South,” Birx said at the joint press conference.
See Lee’s remarks below (starting at 19:00):
However, Lee did not appear open to the idea of shutting down again as he dismissed Birx’s warnings. When asked by a reporter if he would close bars and limit indoor dining as Birx suggested, Lee said he would not.
“We don’t have that plan right now,” Lee said. “Beyond the regions that currently have restrictions, that’s not a plan for us now. I’ve said from the very beginning of this pandemic that there’s nothing off the table.”
Lee added, “I’ve also said that we are not going to close the economy back down, and we are not going to. But I appreciate their recommendations, and we take them seriously.”
According to Birx, Tennessee is now considered part of the red state category with a test positivity rate of over 10%, as she said at Monday’s press conference.
“The number one bullet is mandate masks,” Birx said, adding to her recommendations, “Close your bars, enhanced social distancing, tell every Tennessean to not social gather with more than 10 people.”
Birx latest remarks at Lee’s press conference comes just days after she confirmed she was traveling to various states that are seeing an uptick in coronavirus cases.
The infectious disease expert previously compared the outbreaks in multiple states to New York’s initial outbreak, as previously reported on IJR.
When previously asked on “The Today Show” how much worse could the virus get, Birx noted that it really “depends on the next set of cities.”
