By Kendall Patterson
Staff Writer
Businesses and restaurants started to reopen this week, however a majority of the restaurants, especially the franchise restaurants remain to only allow curbside or drive-thru. At the time of printing, retail has yet to reopen their doors.
Some are enjoying the outdoors at Tennessee State Parks after they opened back up on Friday. Local residents are enjoying the walking trail and dog park at Henderson’s Gene Record Memorial Park.
Despite it all, cases are still on the rise as Tennessee makes the 10,000 mark going into Tuesday April 28 at 10,052 cases, 134 more cases than there were Monday.
Some agree with getting the businesses up and running again while others believe that holding off on the economy longer is worth the health of the state.
Tennessee continues open businesses as Tennessee’s Economic Recovery Group announced on Tuesday, April 28, guidance for gyms and exercise facilities on how to reopen safely. Gyms will be allowed to reopen in 89 of the state’s 95 counties beginning Friday, May 1. The counties excluded are those with locally-run health departments: Shelby, Madison, Davidson, Hamilton, Knox, and Sullivan.
“Exercise is incredibly important for the physical and mental health of our population, and we want Tennesseans to have access to safe environments where they can exercise as appropriate,” said Tennessee Governor Bill Lee. “These guidelines outline best practices in keeping with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and health experts for gyms to reopen in a way that will keep their employees and customers safe.”
In addition to strict adherence to CDC guidelines, the State recommends gyms, fitness/exercise facilities, or substantially similar facilities and activities put into place an assortment of measures to protect consumers and employees.
Examples of guidelines that must be met are to only allow group fitness classes if classes can be completed in accordance with social distancing recommendations (including but not limited to: less than 50% capacity and with more than 6 feet of distance maintained between participants at all times; no shared equipment during the class; sufficiently adjusted class schedules to allow for deep cleaning between classes; martial arts and other contact activities should be completed without any person-to-person contact) and to encourage all employees and customers to wear PPE where applicable, and recommend that customers wear a face covering.
The full guidelines can be found at https://www.tn.gov/governor/covid-19/economic-recovery/exercise-facilities-guidelines.html.
Locally, Chester County sits at 10 Coronavirus cases and 5 of them being recovered as of the afternoon of Tuesday, April 28.
Keep up to date with local Coronavirus updates on our Chester County Independent Facebook page or our website Chestercountyindependent.com
