Josh Peterson

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed an order Thursday requiring all Tennesseans to stay home unless carrying out essential activities. This mirrors similar moves made in surrounding states, including Florida and Mississippi.

This comes just days after Lee requested all Tennesseans stay home unless carrying out essential activities. This order will remain in effect until midnight, April 14.

There are now 2,845 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Tennessee as of 2 p.m. Thursday, this according to the Tennessee Department of Health. This now includes three cases in Coffee County, 32 deaths and 263 hospitalizations, as well as 220 recovered. One death was reported in Franklin County.

Looking at surrounding counties, Grundy County has 8 confirmed cases, Franklin County has 8, Bedford County 6 and Warren County has one confirmed case. 

The number of Tennesseans who filed for unemployment claims for the week ending March 28 was 94,492, that’s nearly triple the 39,000 claims from the prior week and severely dwarfs the 2,702 claims from the week ending March 14, before the COVID-19 pandemic reached severe levels.

In Southern Middle Tennessee, which is a geographic area that encompasses Coffee, Franklin, Bedford, Moore, Lincoln and other counties west of Manchester, there were 8,147 claims. Not surprisingly, northern Middle Tennessee, which includes Davidson County, had 32,246 claims. There were 20,025 claims in East Tennessee and 12,548 in the greater Memphis area.

Across the country, more than 6.6 million new claims were filed last week. Coupled with the week prior, that’s 10 million claims in the past two weeks nationwide. Prior to COVID-19, the highest week for claims was 695,000 in 1982. In case you were wondering, the highest week during the Great Recession was 665,000 in March of 2009.

Manchester will have a two-man race for Mayor this August.

Sitting mayor Lonnie Norman filed papers to seek a third consecutive term before Thursday’s filing deadline. Also filing for Manchester Mayor was Steven Jones, a former county commissioner who ran an unsuccessful bid for city mayor in 2016.

Meanwhile, three Manchester aldermen are up for re-election and all three have filed for the August race – they are Bob Bellamy, Chris Elam and Ryan French.

Three others have filed to run in the alderman race – Tammie Fuller, Donny Parsley and James Threet. Out of the six candidates, the three receiving the most votes in the August election will win seats.

Susan Parsley and Lee Sullivan filed petitions to seek seats on the Manchester Board of Education.
Gary Nester, who currently serves on the Coffee County School Board seat one, has filed for re-election. Robert Gilley has filed his petition for seat five – both are running unopposed.

In Tullahoma, Daniel Berry, Ray Knowis and Karl Smithson have all filed to run for mayor of the city, one will fill the spot that will be left open by Lane Curlee, who opted to not seek re-election.

Jenna Amacher, Robin Dunn, Brooke Shasteen and Ashli Shockley are running for aldermanic seats in Tullahoma.
Tennessee republican state representative Rush Bricken, who serves the 47th district, has filed for re-election. He will face competition in the August state primary against Ronnie Holden.

Janice Bowling will seek re-election for Tennessee State Senate.

Election day is Thursday, August 6.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee will sign an order Thursday requiring all Tennesseans to stay home unless carrying out essential activities. This mirrors similar moves made in surrounding states, including Florida and Mississippi.

This comes just days after Lee requested all Tennesseans stay home unless carrying out essential activities. This order will remain in effect until midnight, April 14.

Lee is supposed to address the matter at 3 p.m. Thursday afternoon. Thunder Radio news will post more details as they become available.

There are now three confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Coffee County, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.

“We have received a notification from the State of Tennessee Health that we now have 3 confirmed Covid-19 cases within Coffee County,” Coffee County EMA said in a press release late Wednesday afternoon. “We do not have any information beyond this. Due to HIPPA regulations it is only the responsibility of health [department] to notify us that a resident in our county has tested positive. All other information is kept confidential by TN Dept. of Health. You will not see these numbers represented on the states website until updated numbers are released at 2 p.m. tomorrow.”

Coffee County had its first positive case over the past weekend.

Thunder Radio News has learned through our news sources that administrators at Unity Medical Center have sent a letter to Coffee County Mayor Gary Cordell, Manchester Mayor Lonnie Norman and Tullahoma Mayor Lane Curlee, requesting that local governments go further to restrict movement and public access to business than the governor’s “Safer at Home” restrictions that were implemented Tuesday.

Thunder Radio News obtained a copy of the letter, which is signed by Unity Board of Directors Chairman Bappa Mukherji. It is below:

“While both hospitals in Coffee County are closely watching guidance from the CDC and preparing to care for an influx of COVID-19 patients, there is a practical limit to how many patients we can accommodate. Coffee County has its first confirmed case as the number of confirmed patients continues to climb in Tennessee. Undoubtedly and unfortunately, with the continued spread of the virus and better access to testing, we will see the number of patients in Coffee County grow as well. With ICU rooms, PPE, ventilators and staff in short supply, hospitals face enormous challenges and Unity Medical Center is no different. The CARES Act allocated $100 billion to hospitals and health care systems to help prepare for the coming wave of patients, but there are still no guidelines on how and when the funds will be distributed.

“At Unity, we are recommissioning our ICU unit and have set up an off-site location to care for lower acuity, non-COVID patients if we are overly taxed at our main facility. Despite diligent efforts to prepare, there is only so much that any of us can do to increase capacity for the surge. As has been widely discussed, the best chance we have to care for as many affected patients as possible is to limit the number of patients that need care at a given time. Simply put, we can care for thousands of patients, but we cannot care for thousands of patients at the same time.
“Consequently, Unity Medical Center strongly recommends that Coffee County Government take additional steps to strengthen the current “safer at home” status of the entire state. We ask that Coffee County residents be required to restrict travel to only if absolutely essential. We encourage people to go outside to exercise, but should not congregate anywhere, inside or out. All essential businesses with public access (e.g. grocery stores, pharmacies, etc.) should be required to limit the number of people in the establishment at any given time to maintain social distancing guidelines, with others waiting in their vehicles. We urge any such business to screen customers before allowing access if access is necessary. We believe the “carry out only” or “delivery” method which has been mandated on restaurants should be mandated on all essential businesses when at all possible. Moreover, Coffee County should coordinate with neighboring counties to promote similar practices to limit travel outside the county.”

“We understand the burden and inconvenience such a policy will place on residents and businesses. However, limiting interpersonal interaction is quite literally a matter of life or death. We have witnessed the devastating potential of the virus in New York, New Jersey, Seattle, Italy, Iran and Spain without appropriate containment measures. What many might label as overreaction today may be viewed as the steps that turned the tables on the fight against this virus. ANY slowing of the spread will increase our chance of caring for and saving more patients.”

Coffee County Mayor Gary Cordell told Thunder Radio that he has reviewed the letter and a lengthy meeting was held with leaders Wednesday afternoon.

“Right now, as a county, if we start issuing orders and things like that going against the Governor, I feel like we are really swimming upstream at that point,” explained Cordell. “We really want to encourage everyone to stay home if at all possible and practice social distancing guidelines put forth by the CDC. We have to work together in this and we will come out stronger on the other side.

“If you don’t have to be out, then by all means, please, stay home, wash your hands and take care of yourself.”

As of 2 p.m. Wednesday, there are now 2,683 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Tennessee, according to the Tennessee Department of Health. This includes one confirmed case in Coffee County, 200 hospitalizations and 24 deaths. However, TDH informed Coffee County officials late Wednesday that there are now three confirmed cases in Coffee County.
Lab reports of positive cases are reported to health departments and added as soon as possible.

The deadline for candidates to qualify for the upcoming August 6 state primary, county and city general elections is at noon Thursday, April 2.

In the race for Manchester Mayor, incumbent Lonnie Norman has filed his petition to seek re-election. Also filing a petition for Mayor of Manchester is Steven Jones, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for the seat four years ago. Bill Nickels, who is a current alderman, has picked up papers to run for Manchester mayor, but has not returned his petition as of noon Wednesday.

Three aldermen are up for re-election, Bob Bellamy, Ryan French and Chris Elam. Bellamy has returned his petition to seek re-election. Elam and French have picked up their petitions and while they have not been returned, Elam said he intends to file for re-election. Thunder Radio reached out to French to see if he intends to file his petitions, but has yet to receive an answer.  Also filing petitions for Manchester alderman have been Tammie Fuller, Donny Parsley and James Threet. Two other candidates – Lee Ellard and Wilma Thomas – have picked up petitions for alderman but have not returned them. In this race, the three candidates with the most votes will win seats.
For Manchester City School Board – Susan Parsley and Lee Sullivan have filed petitions.
For Coffee County School Board seat one, incumbent Gary Nester has filed a petition to seek re-election. Shannon Duncan, who represents seat five, has picked up her papers but had not filed a petition as of noon Wednesday.
Meanwhile, incumbent Tennessee State Representative Rush Bricken has filed for re-election in the Republican state primary. He will face competition, as Ronnie Holden, of Tullahoma, has also filed in the state house race. Janice Bowling has filed her petition to seek re-election to the state senate.

Wednesday was National Census Day, and Manchester Mayor Lonnie Norman celebrated by completing his Census online.

Norman said the process “was far easier to complete online that I imagined. It just took a couple of minutes and I was done. Now we need everyone else to complete their Census so we can be sure to get everyone in Manchester and Coffee County accounted for.”

If you have yet to complete your Census, it’s not too late. You can complete your census online by clicking here, or by calling 1-800-354-7271. You may also return the Census packet sent to you in the mail. Just a reminder, it is everyone’s civic duty to complete their Census. It is mandated to be done every 10 years by the United States Constitution.

For every person who is not counted, Coffee County will miss out on about $11,000 in federal money over the next 10 years. If you do not self-respond to the Census, then workers will begin knocking on your door later this spring and summer.

As of 2 p.m. Tuesday, there are now 2,239 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Tennessee, this includes one confirmed case in Coffee County. Of these cases, there have been 23 reported deaths and 175 hospitalizations, according to Tennessee Department of Health.

As of 4 p.m. Monday, Unity Medical Center reports that it has administered 53 tests, with 31 negative results, 1 positive and 21 results pending.

According to a study released Monday, the mortality rate of the COVID-19 disease is now thought to be 0.66%. This is lower than previous numbers that stated 1.38% of those infected will die. This is because new studies take into account mild cases that are never officially diagnosed.