Shelby County Health Department deputy director David Sweat outlined the current coronavirus case total: 79,051 cases in Shelby County, up 432 in the last 24 hours.
Over the past seven days the daily average is 429, which is an improvement, he said.
There have been a total of 1,154 reported related deaths; 14 in the past 24 hours.
Sweat said that is reasonable to expect by the weekend that Tennessee will have more than 700,000 cases total.
The local reproductive rate is 0.84, the lowest Shelby County has experienced so far during the pandemic.
There are 5,571 reported active cases; the case rate is 44.1 per 100,000.
Sweat said that it peaked in mid-January, but is coming down now.
As far in the distribution of cases, Sweat said early in the epidemic we had a much greater impact on Black and Hispanic communities.
“Now when we look at distribution, it is more similar to the pattern of population,” he said.
The greatest single age range with cases is still 24 to 35, Sweat said. But in more recent months, there has been an increase in cases in those who are age 35 to 64.
Sweat said in those age 55 and up is where Shelby County sees an increased risk of mortality; 1.5% of cases are fatal, up from 1.4%.
More older people, those aged 54 to 64, are being diagnosed with COVID-19, Sweat said.
Vaccinations continue at the Pipkin Building at the Mid-South Fairgrounds. Sweat said people should continue to watch Shelby.community for when the Health Department begins to open next month up to schedule more vaccination appointments.
Health officer Dr. Bruce Randolph went over the new health directive, which goes into effect Saturday.
“We want to remind people that we saw that it was necessary to change the health directive in response to changes we are seeing in the data,” he said. “We are making progress. There is a downward trend in a lot of our metrics.”
Randolph said the new directive pretty much allows everything to be open, but everyone must still adhere to safety measures.
In the new directive, emphasis is on personal responsibility.
“We have provided you with info you can take to not contact the virus that causes COVID-19,” Randolph said. “Every citizen should look. There are safety measures outlined that individuals should adhere to.”
He said:
- Get tested if you have been around someone who tested positive.
- If you are under age 40 and have been around people who may not have worn masks, you should get tested.
- If you are age 65 and older, do not go inside places where people are not wearing masks.
Vaccination
Randolph said the Health Department is still in the process of negotiating terms of a second site for second doses and that it will release information as soon as those details are worked out.
Sweat said that health officials locally are still waiting to find out what the change in federal administration means for vaccine supply.
They have not received new information, so far, he said.
“The problem is supply, we need more doses to come into Shelby County,” Sweat said.
Sweat also said that local health officials definitely want to overcome any vaccine hesitancy, if possible, by instilling confidence in people of Shelby County that getting vaccinated is the wise and safe thing to do.
Randolph said they are reaching out to community leaders, members of the faith community, medical community and other influencers to assist in getting the message out.
Randolph himself has received the vaccine. He said, “I’m not going to ask you to do something I myself would not do.”
When asked about the racial breakdown in who has received the vaccine in Shelby County, Randolph said the breakdown of who is eligible to receive the vaccine explains some of the demographics.
“In general, you would find in health care workers, African Americans and other people of color may not be well represented as employees, but we don’t have enough data yet,” he said. “There has been a lot of talk of reluctance in the African-American community to receive the vaccine. Personally, I think that may be a little exaggerated.”
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