Gov. Bill Lee said Tuesday that his administration is creating a plan that would allow the percentage of data on the number of COVID-19 instances at its facility.
“We are running a plan to report school cases,” he said at an afternoon news conference.
The governor’s comments come a few days after state Department of Health officials said the company would not gather or know the number of cases and deaths at the school.
When Lee announced the rules for reopening schools last week, Dr. Lisa Piercey, commissioner of the Department of Health, said Tennessee had no plans to provide such knowledge to the public.
Instead, Piercey said the knowledge exchange would be left to individual districts.
A day later, a spokesperson for the branch cited patient privacy as a priority while protecting the decision.
But on Tuesday, the governor changed course.
“We are developing a plan to report instances in schools,” he said. “I think we want privacy, but we also want to be transparent.”
Lee said that within next week, his administration will provide a plan to “be more transparent” in school data.
The challenge of collecting COVID-19 and schools arises months after the Tennessee Department of Health and Lee’s management were twice criticized for first refusing to disclose safe information. Previous rejections similar to reports of deaths and instances at the county point in nursing homes.
Democrats and Deborah Fisher, an open government activist, criticized the administration’s initial refusal to collect and publish data.
The challenge with COVID-19 knowledge in schools comes when academics begin to return to state classrooms. While they do so, at least 14 cases of COVID-19 have been demonstrated in schools because management insists on face-to-face courses. As a result, some districts, the top of Blount County schools recently, have followed a hybrid style that would allow for a combination of in-person and virtual learning.
Despite the new plan to oppose the trend in the publication of knowledge, Lee has defended its management as a management that remains transparent.
“This pandemic is something none of us have faced before,” he said, noting that COVID-19 introduced the state with a multitude of disorders for the first time. He reiterated the desire to balance transparency by compromising people’s privacy.
However, the publication of the general figures would jeopardize anyone’s privacy unless those overalls are low.
Also on Tuesday, Lee defended his government’s comprehensive administration from the pandemic. In recent weeks, Democrats have criticized the administration, calling for a new strategy.
Occasionally, adding on Tuesday, Lee said there was nothing on the table when he reached the fight opposite COVID-19. However, it has governed a state-wide mandatory masking mandate, trailing bars, restricting food consumption in places, and shutting down the state’s economy for a moment.
Instead, the administration expanded the evidence, introduced a public service crusade, and suggested that the Tennese do their part.
Over the past month, COVID-19 instances have soared in Tennessee, moving from the state’s urban spaces to rural areas, generating a higher number of instances, while deaths exceeded 1,000.
“We are implementing the things that are adequate responses to the spread of the virus,” the governor said. “From the beginning, I’ve tried to be someone looking at where we are and infrequently replaced my position based on the spread of the virus or workload in a community.
Meghan Mangrum contributed to this report.
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Contact Joel Ebert at [email protected] or 615-772-1681 and on Twitter – joelebert29.