**Information about hospitalization status is gathered at the time of diagnosis, therefore this information may be incomplete. This number indicates the number of patients that were ever hospitalized during their illness, it does not indicate the number of patients currently hospitalized.

We became aware that the negative tests that we were posting on our website, gathered from the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System Base System (NBS), may not accurately reflect the number of negative tests in our jurisdiction, as residence isn’t always gathered for negative tests. Because we know testing analysis is critical to determining the burden of disease, we are exploring ways to accurately report negative tests on our website. However, for the time being, we took the chart down to avoid further confusion. For now, we will refer to the statewide testing total on the Tennessee Department of Health’s website.

Historically, negative test results aren’t reported to public health at the local or statewide level. For that reason, there was not a standard system in place, statewide or federally, for the manner in which negative tests are reported. Typically, the burden of infectious disease is evaluated based on positives compared to total population.

* The National Electronic Disease Surveillance System Base System (NBS) is a CDC-developed information system that helps public health departments manage reportable disease data and send data to CDC.

* Data surrounding race and ethnicity is not always gathered at the time of testing. It can be obtained when the local health department conducts their investigation if the case provides it. Cases are not required to provide their race or ethnicity. Since negative numbers are based off testing and are not investigated by local officials, race and ethnicity may not be always be available for negative cases. Positive cases referred to as ‘unknown’ are likely due to three scenarios: 1. They are still under investigation, 2. The data have not yet been reported into the system, or 3. The individual declined to disclose their race.

* Demographics for negative tests were updated on 04/15/2020 and were calculated based on race/ethnicity data available.