The Tennessee Department of Health released new COVID-19 case counts on Friday at 2 p.m. and Tennessee now reports 8,726 cases and 168 deaths. According to the state, 4,370 COVID-19 patients have recovered. That’s around 50 percent of reported cases. As of today, 131,298 of Tennessee’s 6.6 million residents have been tested. Here’s the top five things you need to know for today:

1 | For the third straight day, the number of new COVID-19 cases in the state has jumped by over 400: April 22 (448), April 23 (424), and today (460).

2 | Moore County continues to report just three confirmed case. There are only two counties in the state that still have a zero count: Hancock and Pickett counties. Regionally the counts are as follows: Bedford (138), Coffee (27), Franklin (29), and Lincoln (11).

3 | Drive thru testing happens again this weekend. The two closest locations to Lynchburg will be Southern Middle Tennessee Pavilion in Winchester from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday and Rotary Park in Lawrenceburg from 12-3 p.m. on Sunday. For a complete list of drive thru testing sites, click here.

4| Governor will open restaurants and retail stores in 89 counties next week. Friday morning Governor Bill Lee’s office released guidance for which businesses will be allowed to re-open next week prior to his Stay at Home order’s expiration on April 30. Restaurant can re-open on Monday, April 27 and retailers can re-open on Wednesday, April 30. Both must only operate at 50 percent and employees are encouraged to wear masks.

5 | Over 68,000 new state unemployment claims were reported this week. That’s for the week ending April 18. In total more than 400,000 Tennesseans (or six percent of the population) have file for unemployment in the past five weeks.

6 | The state number of COVID related deaths actually went down today. Yesterday, the Tennessee Department of Health reported 170 COVID-19 related deaths. Today that number went down to 168. According to the THD, they corrected a data entry error from Thursday in today’s numbers.

{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.}