The Memphis/Shelby County COVID-19 Task Force released new data Tuesday suggesting a good number of those individuals who became infected with the virus continued to participate in daily living activities instead of going into quarantine.
Of the 303 cases surveyed in November, 76 percent went back to work and almost 40 percent still engaged in social events and gatherings while sick, putting others at risk of getting the virus.
Three percent participated in school-related activities, Dr. Alisa Haushalter with the Shelby County Health Department said.
Of those surveyed, four out of five had symptoms.
The group with the highest number of cases continues to be those 25 to 35 years of age. Those 35 to 45 years of age are second.
The Shelby County Health Department reported 48,714 cases Tuesday, an increase of 609 cases.
There have been 672 deaths, which accounts for 1.4 percent of all cases in Shelby County. There were 11 deaths reported in the last 24 hours.
There are 44,312 inactive/recovered cases and 3,730 active cases in the county.
As of Nov. 30, there are 501 patients being treated for COVID-19 in Shelby County hospitals. Combined with the non-COVID patients, hospitals are currently operating at 87 percent utilization when it comes to acute care. In the ICU departments, it’s 93 percent.
There is also concern regarding hospital staffing especially with hospitals having medical staff in isolation and quarantine.
“What efforts can be put in place assure that hospitals have sufficient staffing as they have more patients admitted not just for covid, but flu, stroke, and heart attack and other things,” Haushalter said.
The projection for the hospital census is around 501 for Christmas day. Haushalter said the numbers of COVID cases are rising sooner than expected.
“Probably about two or three weeks ago we predicted we might have 500 in the hospital at Christmas. Now we have 500 at the beginning of December,” Haushalter said. “There is a significant shortages of nurses across the country. We are not likely able to recruit people to come here to be able to assist us and we’ll have to rely on local resources to able to staff the hospital beds.”
Additional staffing will be needed when the highly anticipated COVID vaccine arrives in Shelby County in a few weeks.
“It’s a tenuous vaccine. We want to make sure once it’s received, we get it to the field quickly and administered quickly,” Haushalter said.
The weekly test positivity rate has increased to 10.3 percent. The health department said ideally that number should be under five percent.
