(Editor’s note:
Beginning today (6.23.20), the City of Memphis, Shelby County Joint COVID Task Force meetings are on Tuesday and Friday mornings. The phone call sessions include Mayors from Memphis, Shelby and the municipalities, along with administrative and elected officials from the region. Commissioner Wesley Wright from Lakeland “sits in” for those meetings. The report below is from Commissioner Wright.)
By Lakeland Commissioner Wesley Wright
Pragmatic and contemplative the meeting today referenced Florida and Texas and juxtaposed them with states like New York. Medical advisors had several takes on why some states were doing well and some not.
One idea is the population is less susceptible in New York due to the presence of more antibodies. Age continues to play critical role on the overall number. A shift has occurred in the average age of positives. It was 58 in April, then 43 in May and now 40 in June. This average was brought down by a big uptick in cases among 25-35 years of age.
Tennessee is “participating in a national trend of increased cases” according to the Shelby County Health Department (SCHD). Cumulative numbers will of course keep rising but it’s the trends and hospital occupancy that are being closely watched.
People have asked why are probable cases being shown on certain charts. The state of Tennessee is now reporting probable cases. Cases where the patient exhibits multiple symptoms. Probable numbers has had a low impact on case numbers but not so in death count (see chart) per the SCHD.
Notes from today
- Shelby County with 8,203 cases, 166 deaths, 2% mortality, and 7.3% positivity rate. “COVID-19 is widespread in Shelby County,” according to the SCHD.
- It was suggested by Dr. Jeff Warren that those who test positive go ahead and do your own contact tracing before the SCHD arrives
- Hospital rep discusses with SCHD about messaging to hotspots like public facilities/churches
- Positive test in the warehouse in the Memphis Food-bank, 12 sent home
- School superintendents have been invited to this meeting and are listening. Friday they will have a spot to comment.
- Shelby Mayor Lee Harris: Superintendents on the call with the mayors Thursday
- The testing rate has gone up and the SCHD is working on a new testing plan moving forward
- Consolidating test sites, low utilization in many areas
- Watching Hospitalizations the most
- Today press briefing
- Two critical stats have been monitored during “Back to Business” phasing in: #1 Daily case rates and #2 ICU utilization by COVID-19 positives
Link to data from the Shelby County Health Department: https://insight.livestories.com/s/v2/covid-19-data-dashboard-%7C-shelby-county-tn/e381a899-7ffe-43fe-b80f-c9e63ebfcef6
In Tennessee the most recent numbers are: 35,553 total cases (+451); 23,567 recovered (+500); 531 deaths (+5); 2,301 hospitalized (+10); and 699,854 tested (+14,473).
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/
