Ggovernor Lee Committs to Testing All Long Term Care Residents and Staff April 30, 2020 Governor Bill Lee spoke at White House briefing and made a huge committment to help protect senior citizens in Tennessee.  During his speech Governor Lee committed to test every staff member and resident at all 700+ long term care facility in Tennessee.  Governor Lee admitted it was a great undertaking but it will honor the lives of senior citizens.  Governor Lee also praised President Donald Trump for his leadership in this covid-19 crisis and expressed graditude for the partnership between federal government and states like Tennessee.  Governor Lee also expressed continued efforts to test Tennessee residents for covid-19.  Tennessee has tested over 175,000(177,626 through April 30th report) residents through April 30th. Tennessee has 478 positive cases of COVID-19 at long-term care facilities with 44 deaths through April 30, 2020. Governor Bill Lee said, "Mr President,  you've asked states to commit to a goal of testing 2% of their population in April 2% of Tennessee and are tested and we have tested over 175,000 people to date but, as we look to May to to build upon that we're actually strengthening our commitment particularly to the elderly the most vulnerable of our citizens especially those in nursing homes." "The elderly are most hard-pressed in this setting and especially those in long-term care facilities in their need or help so in Tennessee we're committed to testing every resident and every staff and every one of our 700 long-term care facilities it'll be a great undertaking but it it honors the value of these lives and those facilities lives that have protected our country and the hardest of times the greatest generation and those that have a loving legacy of being our neighbors our friends and our grandparents and and it's time for us to protect them we should do so by pursuing social distancing for example in every way that we can with them and the distance is sometimes a great gulf."