Tennessee Education Department unveils COVID data tool

Nashville, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee's Education Department has developed a dashboard on its website where citizens can find information about COVID-19 cases in the public schools, Commissioner Penny Schwinn announced Thursday.

The dashboard will go live on Tuesday, the same day the last two Tennessee school districts begin classes. It will provide information about new COVID cases in students and staff at both the district level and the individual school level. New cases numbers will be uploaded by the close of business on Monday for the previous week.

Gov. Bill Lee initially said the state would not collect data on school cases but the Republican soon reversed course and said his administration was asking for federal guidance about what could be disclosed without violating student privacy laws.

In order to not violate student privacy, schools with fewer than 50 students will not be included on the dashboard, Schwinn said during a news conference withe Lee. Schools reporting fewer than five positive student or employee cases will be listed as having active cases but without specific numbers.

Also at the Thursday news conference, the Tennessee Health Department unveiled changes to its public COVID website that include easier access to detailed county-level information. Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey said the department has also made a change to how it counts active cases. Instead of assuming that cases are active for 21 days, the department is switching to a 14-day limit.

Because of the change, every county will show a drop in active case numbers and an increase in the number of inactive cases, Piercey said. The change was being rolled out Thursday afternoon. In addition, 1,700 cases that had been assigned to the wrong counties were being reassigned. Around two dozen counties will see their numbers rise or fall because of that change, Piercey said.

While most people who contract the coronavirus recover after suffering only mild to moderate symptoms, it can be deadly for older people and those with existing health problems.

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