COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations rising outside of Tennessee’s largest metro areas, appear stable in Nashville, Memphis

The COVID-19 pandemic is playing out in very different ways across the country and state by state. This is also true in Tennessee, according to a new analysis by faculty researchers at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

What was initially an outbreak concentrated in large urban areas has moved into more rural communities with fewer health care resources. In Tennessee, more than half of newly reported cases of COVID-19 and hospitalizations are now in areas outside of the state’s two largest metro areas, Nashville and Memphis.