Cookeville Mayor Ricky Shelton said it is time to stop the rumors concerning COVID-19.
“Just today (Tuesday) I’ve received messages that people are saying and posting ‘Cookeville is going on a lockdown at 6pm tonight,’ that ‘our ICU is full of COVID patients,’ ‘only 12 people have actually been tested in our entire county’ and that ‘I personally had the virus.’ All of these are completely false.”
Shelton said the rumors do nothing but scare citizens and cause misinformation.
“Please let’s stop the mass panic, hysteria and rumor,” Shelton said. “They only serve to instill fear.”
Shelton and County Mayor Randy Porter began providing daily updates on the coronavirus in an attempt to provide real information on the local situation.