COVID-19 is spreading rapidly throughout Tennessee, as the state has the ninth-highest rate of new cases in the U.S., local NBC affiliate 10News reports.
The majority of Tennessee's 95 counties are in the red zone, which denotes rising cases, positivity rates, deaths and hospitalizations. About 98 percent of all counties in Tennessee have moderate or high levels of community transmission, according to a report by the White House Coronavirus Task Force cited by 10News.
The state's rate of new cases was 264 per 100,000 people, nearly twice the national average of 133 per 100,000.
The White House task force has expressed concerns about available resources if hospitalization trends increase. The task force has encouraged the state to implement mitigation efforts to curb community spread.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has extended Tennessee's state of emergency through the end of October, Fox17 reported. He said: "We are in fact in a period of time where our case counts are growing across Tennessee. We all know that's happening in the vast majority of states across the country. We experienced a similar surge to this in the summer."