The Tennessee Department of Health released new COVID-19 case counts on Thursday at 2 p.m. and Tennessee now reports 8,266 cases and 170 deaths. According to the state, 4,193 COVID-19 patients have recovered. That’s around 51 percent of reported cases. As of today, 123,100 of Tennessee’s 6.6 million residents have been tested. Here’s the top five things you need to know for today:

1| State numbers jumped by over 400 for the second day straight. Yesterday’s number increased by 448 cases and today’s number jumped by another 424 cases. Since April 21, the state’s been reporting about 7,000 new tests each day.

2| Moore County’s confirmed COVID-19 remains at three. On April 15, Moore County reported it’s first official COVID-19 case. Three days later, the state confirmed our second case and a third case appeared in the April 22 numbers. According to the report, as of today, 93 people from Moore County have been tested.

3 | Bedford County’s numbers jumped significantly this week. On Monday, Bedford County reported just 76 cases. By Tuesday that number skyrocketed to 105. Thursday’s count was 128. According to multiple news reports, the spike comes from a large number of positive cases at the Tyson Chicken plant in Shelbyville. The plant employees around 1,000 people.

4 | Governor Bill Lee plans to reopen 89 of 95 counties on May 1. On Tuesday, Governor Lee announced his plan to let his Stay at Home order expire on April 30 and re-open large portions of the state on May 1. Some business will be allowed to re-open as early as Monday, April 27 but the governors office has yet to release guidance for which businesses. Shelby, Madison, Davidson, Hamilton, Knox, and Sullivan counties – where there are the largest concentration of cases – will re-open on their own timelines.

To view the state’s complete report, click here. •

{The Lynchburg Times is an independently owned and operated newspaper that publishes new stories every morning. Covering Metro Moore County government, Jack Daniel’s Distillery, Nearest Green Distillery, Tims Ford State Park, Motlow State Community College, Moore County High School, Moore County Middle School, Lynchburg Elementary, Raider Sports, plus regional and state news.}