Mayor Calls for All Bars in Davidson County to Close

A special meeting of the Metro Nashville Board of Public Health was held Sunday to declare a public health emergency.

Stressing that self-isolation, social distancing and precautions is the best way to limit exposure, Metro Nashville Board of Health, along with Mayor Cooper, suggests that bars in Davidson County close and restaurants reduce crowds.

Mayor Cooper and the Metro Nashville Board of Public Health ask for the following measures to be taken:

• All bars on Lower Broadway and throughout Davidson County are to close
• Restaurants are to limit maximum seating capacity to 50% with no more than 100 occupants (restaurants are defined as public facilities where food sales are more than 50% of revenue)
• Bar service at restaurants should be limited to 50% of capacity with no standing allowed.

An exact date of when these new measures go into place was not given, but Mayor Cooper says the next 24-48 hours will be used to inform local businesses.

The goal of these new measures is to slow the spread of COVID-19 by instituting new rules that emphasize social distancing, the board says.

“By taking serious short term actions to limit person to person transmission now, our collective long term outlook will drastically improve,” said Mayor Cooper.