The White House coronavirus task force is recommending Tennessee and local “red zones” like Nashville, where virus cases are surging, to implement stricter restrictions such as mask mandates and closing businesses. 

Federal recommendations for 18 states were originally published Tuesday by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit newsroom based in Washington, D.C. 

In the report, federal officials recommend that Tennessee require face masks in public where cases are on the rise. It also recommended that it close bars and gyms in hot spot counties and limit indoor dining at restaurants to 25% capacity. 

Other recommendations include: 

• Instituting routine weekly testing of all workers in assisted living and long-term care facilities and requiring visitors to wear masks and socially distance.
• Recommending anyone with underlying health conditions and at high risk to shelter in place. 
• Increasing community level testing and recruiting more contact tracers.
• Implementing “pooling” testing by screening entire households and placing all specimens in one tube with rapid turnaround results. Isolate and conduct follow-up individual tests.
• Adding extra and weekend testing shifts to decrease testing turnaround times.

The report places Davidson, Rutherford, Sumner, Bradley, Seiver, Hamblen, Macon, Robertson, Bedford, Dyer, Lauderdale and Smith counties as “red zones” in Tennessee, where cases have risen in the past week. 

These counties are largely given the recommendations included above, with focus on testing. It calls for doing surge testing and contract tracing in neighborhoods and zip codes with the highest case rates, and diagnostic pooling, where labs pool of samples to increase testing access and reduce turnaround times to under 12 hours.  

The report also tells counties to recruit more contact tracers so contact with positive patients and testing for individuals in positive households are done within 24 hours. 

Gillium Ferguson, as spokesperson for Gov. Bill Lee said Tennessee’s Unified Command Group is in close contact with White House officials, and share regular updates, best practices and challenges the state faces in responding to the ongoing pandemic. 

“Many of the suggestions listed are already in place in certain counties in Tennessee, and we are working with local governments on the best way to address the pandemic in their unique communities,” Ferguson told The Tennessean Thursday. 

Lee doubled-down this week on leaving mask use to the public and mandates by localities. He also said closing down the economy again was not an option on the table as cases continue to surge in the state. 

Tennessee recorded 2,479 news infections Thursday, bringing the total number of active cases across the state to at least 29,494. Altogether 796 people have died, with 13 new deaths in 24 hours. 

The crisis deepened this week after record-breaking numbers of single-day highs of new infections for the state and in Nashville. Local health officials reported 322 new confirmed COVID-19 cases Thursday in Nashville. There has been an average 18% positivity rate among the tests done in the city in the past week. 

“These recommendations for states validate Nashville’s decisions to mandate masks, lower gathering sizes, close bars, decrease restaurant capacity and encourage attendees of large events to get tested,” said Chris Song, a spokesperson for Mayor John Cooper.

Metro will continue to consider the remaining recommendations as officials continue to push for a coordinated response “rather than an ‘every county for itself’ approach,” he said. 

Related: Nashville police begin enforcing city’s mandatory mask requirement on Lower Broadway

Nashville officials were forceful this week in calling for the state and federal government to step up in their pandemic response. Without a coordinated plan, they said, the ability of Nashville and other localities to stop the spread of COVID-19 will be hindered.