Tony Gonzalez

Sumner County students return to classrooms in person Tuesday as the district discards its hybrid schedule.

For the first two weeks, most students had been in classrooms just two days per week.

The district says it’s following its re-entry plan, which sought a return to in-person instruction as soon as possible. But the announcement still triggered nearly 700 comments on the district Facebook page, ranging from celebratory to distraught.

Sumner County reported 268 actively contagious cases coming out of the holiday weekend. The county has reported 87 deaths during the pandemic, the third-most in the state.

Tennessee’s election officials have yet to properly inform voters that people in high-risk groups for COVID-19 and their caretakers can request an absentee mail-in ballot this year.

That’s the finding in a new court order Tuesday.

Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle has given the state a deadline — noon on Monday — to revise the form that voters use to ask for a mail-in ballot.

The state must mention COVID-19 by name, and make clear that anyone with an underlying health condition that makes them more susceptible to contracting the virus, including caretakers of such people, have a reason to vote absentee. The state also must tell county-level election officials to do the same.

More people in Tennessee are confirmed to have the coronavirus right now than at any point during the pandemic, according to tracking by WPLN News.

The state has also seen an upward trend in new cases and hospitalizations in recent days. About two dozen additional patients enter a hospital each day, statewide.

While there have been more than 26,000 coronavirus cases in Tennessee as of Sunday, most people fully recovered weeks ago. So it’s becoming more important to watch the number of cases considered actively contagious. That number of “active” cases is as high as it’s ever been: 8,741, and it’s been rising for days.

The seven people found dead in Sumner County over the weekend include the father, mother and uncle of the suspect.

The other four victims' relationship to the suspect is still unclear, authorities said at a press conference Monday morning. The suspect, 25-year-old Michael Cummins, remains in custody.

Law enforcement discovered the incident Saturday following a 911 call. They located several people dead near the small town of Westmoreland, about an hour northeast of Nashville. They also learned of a second scene nearby, where another person had been killed.