Nashville, Tenn.–Tennessee Governor Bill Lee Friday afternoon announced that close contact services, such as salons and barbershops, in 89 of Tennessee’s 95 counties will be able to reopen at limited capacity on May 6.
In a conference call with legislators earlier in the day, he acknowledged that state officials, including himself, had received ‘a lot of calls’ about salons and barber shops.
“There will be changes to the ways that we are operating and allowing businesses to open over the next 30 days — and those will be made in accordance with how data shows we should be making those decisions,” Lee told lawmakers.
The state’s Economic Recovery Group will release industry-specific guidance for those businesses before the end of this week.
Also during his briefing today:
Key Updates
Widespread COVID-19 Testing Efforts
President Trump announced this week that states should move to test 2% of their population each month. With almost 170,000 residents tested already, Tennessee has met this goal for April and is looking to continue that progress through May.
Unified-Command Group is increasing testing of vulnerable populations in the coming weeks, including widespread testing of all long-term care facilities in Tennessee (more than 700 facilities and 70,000 residents) and additional testing sites in minority communities. The State of Tennessee has partnered with National Health Care Corporation to test all residents and staff within their 38 Tennessee facilities.
Expanded testing continues this weekend (May 2-3) for all Tennesseans regardless of symptoms with new drive-through sites available across each Grand Division. Sites for this can be found here.
Tennesseans can get a test five days a week at county health departments — a full list of sites is available here, and additional information on Tennessee’s aggressive testing push is available here.
Executive Order No. 31
Today, Gov. Lee issued Executive Order 31 to extend the prohibition of non-emergency dental services to Wednesday, May 6, to allow more needed time for the Tennessee Dental Association, the Tennessee Dental Hygienist Association, and the Tennessee Board of Dentistry to continue their work on guidance for safe reopening and practice.
The full text of Executive Order No. 31 can be found here.
Current Department of Health Testing Results (as of 3 p.m. 4/29)
| Confirmed Cases | Hospitalizations | Fatalities | Recovered | Total Tests |
| 10,366 | 1,013 | 195 | 5,140 | 168,549 |
For more information on COVID-19 in Tennessee, please visit the Tennessee Department of Health’s website