Story courtesy of WKRN2
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Tennessee Governor Bill Lee is expected to issue an executive order requiring citizens to stay home unless they are carrying out essential activities as data shows an increase in citizen movement across the state.
“Over the last few weeks, we have seen decreases in movement around the state as Tennesseans socially distance and stay at home,” said Gov. Lee. “However, in recent days we have seen data indicating that movement may be increasing and we must get these numbers trending back down. I have updated my previous executive order to clearly require that Tennesseans stay at home unless they are carrying out essential activities.”
Data from the Tennessee Department of Transportation analyzed traffic patterns for March 2020. While safer at home measures and further restrictions on businesses showed a steep drop-off in vehicle movement from March 13-29, data beginning on March 30 indicates travel is trending upwards, again.
The Administration also analyzed data from Unacast to understand cell phone mobility and determine movement trends among people. Unacast indicates the movement of Tennesseans is trending toward pre-COVID-19 levels.
“The month of April stands to be an extremely tough time for our state as we face the potential for a surge in COVID-19 cases,” said Lee. “Every Tennessean must take this seriously, remain at home and ensure we save lives.”
A group of 2,000 doctors who organized a petition calling for Gov. Lee to do more ten days ago are celebrating this move.
“We are thrilled to finally have a stay-at-home order and it only happened because of the thousands of doctors and healthcare workers across this state used their voice to protect the wellbeing of their patients, their colleagues and their neighbors,” said Pulmonary Specialist Dr. Aaron Milstone. “Many of these frontline healthcare workers who risk their lives every day also risked their careers for speaking up — and we cannot thank them enough.”
Dr. Milstone says the stay-at-home order “is a testament to the power of doctors, nurses, healthcare workers and citizens who make their voices heard.”
“We want to thank Gov. Lee for listening to the voices of doctors, nurses and citizens across our state, but this is no time to relax,” Milstone said. “We are racing against a pandemic that doesn’t care about executive orders or politics and, right now, we are still weeks behind.”
Executive Order 23 remains in effect until April 14 at 11:59 p.m. Gov. Lee will address these measures in the press briefing today at 3 p.m. CDT.
