(Editor’s note: Lakeland Commissioner Wesley Wright “sits in” for the Tuesday/Friday briefings of the City of Memphis Shelby County Joint COVID Task Force, mayors from throughout Shelby County and administrative and elected officials from the region. His report is below.)
By Lakeland Commissioner Wesley Wright
Today, Dr. Ted Horrell (Lakeland School System superintendent) spoke on behalf of the municipal schools during a Joint Task Force meeting that was thoroughly informative and got to the heart of the matter in many regards.
Dr Horrell said all school systems in Shelby County plan to open Aug. 10th. Some school systems may vary in implementation but that is the date. The Lakeland School system will be announcing details around mid-July.
Today the goals from the Joint Task Force were better defined and measurable regarding vulnerable populations and back to school. Critical to understanding this pandemic is the co-morbidity. See the chart on who is contracting COVID-19. The mortality rises dramatically once it gets around 55 per the Shelby County Health Department (SCHD). There are charts on those adversely or disproportionately impacted. For those of you who have intensely followed COVID-19, this should come as no surprise but rather support the great need to protect those at risk. As always stay tuned.
Notes from today:
-Shelby County with 8,845 cases, 178 deaths, 2% mortality, and 7.5% positivity rate.
-We are trying for broad adoption to keep the COVID-19 outbreak at bay – SCHD
-Mayor Keith McDonald, Bartlett, asks about co-morbidity: what’s the messaging we can do with this?
-Emphasis from SCHD on compliance during quarantine
– R naught still hovering around 1.12
– Acute care and ICU status yellow
– We are at a plateau of 200 per day in hospitalizations
– Oct. 17th is the anticipated apex of the Epicurve
– Multi-generational households are problematic. That’s what has hurt Italy so dramatically
– Dr. Manoj K. Jain: Houston, Arizona and Cali may foreshadow Memphis and Nashville.
– Fatigue among hospital staff
– 8%- 9% of the population estimates to have been infected
– Dr. Jeff Warren: Memphis has done well compared to other large metros regarding masks
– Memphis and Shelby County mentioned in the Washington Post today.
– Demographic data distributed to communities impacted adversely by COVID-19, particularly churches and other large places of gathering
– If you have those underlying conditions even if you are under control you are at risk
– School Notes: Use cohorts, limit exposure with other students. Big challenge is bus transportation. Logistical factors. Traffic implications. Patrice Thomas, chief of staff for Shelby County Schools, thanked Ted for encapsulating the SCS and municipal schools plans.
– Trending a little higher in the Hispanic populations across the state
– 2 critical stats have been monitored during “Back to Business” phasing in: #1 Daily case rates and #2 ICU utilization by COVID-19 positives
As always stay tuned, care for loved ones and those in need, support our small businesses, let’s stay safe and #FlattenTheCurve
SCHD website with more data: www.shelbytnhealth.com/COVID19Data
The Health Department’s hotline number is 833-943-1658 and is answered daily from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. After-hours calls are returned on the next business day.
In Tennessee the most recent numbers are: 38,034 total cases (+799); 25,280 recovered (+587); 567 deaths (+11); 2,431 hospitalized (+45); and 727,268 tested (+9,230).
TDH website: https://www.tn.gov/health/cedep/ncov.html
COViD-19 data from Shelby County, Metro Memphis and Tennessee from The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC): https://uthsc.edu/coronavirus/local-data/
