Shelby County health directives No. 6 and No. 7 — instituted on June 15 and June 22, respectively — provide more freedoms for events, restaurants, movie theaters, and live performance theaters than were allowed earlier in the phase. The changes cover most of what a move to “phase three” would have originally meant; the primary… Read More
Physicians warned people in Shelby County about the increasing number of COVID-19 cases Monday. “Whenever you see an increase in numbers like this, it’s worrisome,” the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s Dr. Scott Strome said. “There’s no question if this doubles in the next month, everyone will be stressed,” Baptist Hospital infectious disease specialist Dr. Steve… Read More
Late last week, Dr. Jon McCullers took a look at the local hospitalization data and thought, “Welp, that looks really bad.” As can be seen in the graph below, the number of confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations rocketed on June 10, after slowly climbing the two weeks prior. McCullers — an expert on influenza pandemics for the… Read More
To stem the rise of new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Shelby County, mask and facial covering use must increase locally, multiple public health officials reiterated at a press briefing Tuesday afternoon. “It’s my belief that the only way we’re going to see the numbers going back down, hospitalizations heading back down, is we have… Read More
Physicians on the area’s COVID-19 task force said the increase in hospitalizations was the main reason the county did not move to phase three of reopening as intended Monday. The decision also came amid concern over how the virus is spreading, with evidence it is being passed more in the community and less in clusters… Read More
This week, the number of people in the city’s hospitals hit 71% of its COVID-surge capacity, a daunting high-water mark for a disease that spreads exponentially. At the current level of people moving about, doctors say the cases could jump from 500 to 1,000, overnight.
There is no doubt that COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on human health worldwide. While scientific communities and clinicians are engaged in research to develop a vaccine for the virus and are repurposing existing antiviral drugs to treat it, prospects for either are not available now.
An local health expert says Memphis is not experiencing a second wave of COVID-19, but the city will need to maintain social distancing and good hygiene practices to prevent one. As some states see declining COVID-19 cases and slowly reopen, Memphis has recently seen a small increase.
