MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The city of Memphis said it will be offering free COVID-19 testing for the next three weekends in December.
The first testing events will be held at Poplar Healthcare at 3495 Hacks Cross Road and Tiger Lane at 450 Early Maxwell Boulevard this Saturday, Dec. 5 and Sunday, Dec. 6, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
The other events will take place on December 12th and December 19th weekends.
All of the events are open to both symptamatic and asympamatic individuals.
The Shelby County Health Department reported 49,631 cases Thursday, an increase of 368 cases. On average, the health department said the county has seen an average of 470 cases per day.
There have been 683 deaths, which accounts for 1.4 percent of all cases in Shelby County. There were 11 new deaths reported in the last 24 hours.
Of those who have died, 56.8 percent are Black/African American, 26.8 percent is White/Caucasion and 16.8 percent are other races.
There are 45,397 inactive/recovered cases and 3,551 active cases in the county.
As of Dec. 2, there are 501 patients being treated for COVID-19 in Shelby County hospitals. Combined with the non-COVID patients, hospitals are currently operating at 93 percent utilization when it comes to acute care. In the ICU departments, it’s 90 percent.
There is also concern regarding hospital staffing especially with hospitals having medical staff in isolation and quarantine.
The weekly test positivity rate has increased to 10.4 percent.
