According to Mayor Cooper’s plan, severe restrictions will remain in place for months and there is no plan to lift restrictions entirely, even in the last phase of his four-phase plan. Nashville’s key industries, entertainment, bars and live music will remain closed for the foreseeable future and a massive property-tax hike will increase the financial pressure on Nashvilleans. However, after protests and amid enormous hospital-overcapacity, Cooper finally agreed to at least allow small retail stores to open up again, albeit with substantial restrictions.
“Last week, on April 30th, we were supposed to have opened the Music City Center as an emergency 1,400 bed hospital, and it’s a prayerful event that that didn’t happen.” Cooper said. “Our hospitalization and mortality rates are relatively low. Our transmission rate could be better, but is still around one after several weeks. The time for the disease to double is flat, always an important public health metric.”
While the speed of the mayor’s reopening plan is still dissapointingly hesitant and keeping up restrictions is no longer justified by science, beginning the reopening is at least a small step in the right direction.