Tag: COVID-19

Thousands absent. About 3,000 SCS students have not logged into the virtual classes yet.

“We want to play.” Shelby County Schools announced the postponement of fall sports “until further notice,” which drew ire from parents and students who are protesting the decision and calling it unfair.

UM cluster. The health department is monitoring a cluster of cases at the University of Memphis.

Labor Day. The health department is reporting an increase in cases related to the opening of schools and the Labor Day holiday weekend.

Nashville kerfuffle. A now-retracted report from WZTV in Nashville questioned emails between metro officials appearing to hide the number of cases in bars. A Tennesseean fact check says that isn’t what happened.

Tennessee cases. Another Tennessean report said state officials left thousands of cases as “active” long after they weren’t. The state’s massive adjustment on 9/3 had no impact on the reported number of active cases in Shelby County.

CARES relief. Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris has announced a grant program to benefit local restaurants adversely affected by the pandemic.

Vaccine trial. A COVID-19 vaccine trial is underway in Memphis and is in need of more minority participation.

This week. Below are this week’s graphs charting local tests, cases, hospitalizations and deaths related to COVID-19. All data is via the Shelby County Health Department.

Seeing the light. New cases and active cases continue to fall in Shelby County as we hit the six month mark of the COVID-19 pandemic. Is this the light at the end of the tunnel? Area hospitalizations are also falling for both acute care and ICU patients.

City-county divide. Cases are reportedly falling inside Memphis but rising in the suburbs.

Reporting school cases. The State of Tennessee launched a dashboard tracking cases by school district.

The numbers. This week’s graphs will focus exclusively on Shelby County, and we’ll take a closer look at case fatality rates. All data below comes from the Shelby County Health Department.

Dead letter. Millington resident Troy Whittington shared a letter the Shelby County Health Department sent to his mother informing her of a positive test for COVID-19 and orders to isolate. But she passed away six months ago, on February 16.

Holiday delay. Cases are falling in Shelby County, but the Health Department wants to wait at least two weeks after Labor Day before relaxing its health directives.

Vaccine plans. The Health Department is making preparations to distribute a vaccine that the CDC says we should expect in late October or early November.

Quick tests. Sometime this month, Shelby County expects to have access to quick, $5 antigen tests purchased by the federal government.

Now for this week’s numbers.

Executive orders. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has extended the state of emergency through September with three executive orders that 1. allow county mayors to maintain mask mandates, 2. allow local governments to continue meeting electronically, and 3. allow for remote notarization of documents.

Going remote. Collierville High School is going to remote learning for two weeks following 5 reported cases.

School reports. The Shelby County Health Department will report cases of COVID-19 by school district but not by individual school.

Media database. The Commercial Appeal is asking parents, teachers and students to contribute reports of cases in individual schools to a database it has created.

Now for this week’s numbers.

In the news this week…

School starts… The bulk of Shelby County’s municipal school districts began their school year on Monday with plenty of uncertainty in the air.

…But for how long? Some state leaders said schools will run into challenges staying open.

School reports. The Shelby County Health Department said it will not release COVID-19 cases in schools.

Childhood trauma. The so-called “secondary effects” of the pandemic continue to rise, with reports of higher instances of depression, mental illness, violence, abuse and neglect.

Wellness checks. The state’s guidance for school districts in discovering and reporting child trauma came under scrutiny, causing the Department of Education to walk it back. But the governor and members of the Child Wellbeing Task Force continued to defend it.

Media access. Local journalists were outraged because Collierville High School denied media access to a football game. Imagine being told you can’t go somewhere or do your job. It turns out such orders can be upsetting. Who would have thought? Welcome to the club, media!

Now for this week’s numbers.