MEMPHIS, Tenn. — One year ago Thursday, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic.
On December 21, 2020, Tennessee emerged as the most infected state in the country. The Volunteer State was the nation’s hot spot with hospitals bursting at the seams and dozens of Tennesseans dying every day. Fast forward to March 11, 2021, and the difference is clear. All of the sacrifices made – the business closures and the social distancing- appears to be paying off.
In Shelby County, the number of new Covid cases has fallen to the lowest level since the summer. The graphic below from the city of Memphis shows the decline in cases has plateaued. There are still about 100 people a day testing positive for the virus in the area, and there is concern those numbers could rise as new variants of the virus spread.
“We should assume that every virus in our communities would be one of the variants that is more contagious,” said Dr. Stephen Threlkeld. “We’re in a race. We have a very large pool of tens of thousands of people in our community alone that are at risk and unvaccinated. We need to fill that group with vaccines rather than virus, and the way to do that is to vaccinate them quickly and effeciently. Then also not to be foolhearty at allowing this virus to replicate unhindered in our community.”
Local health officials are vaccinating people as quickly as the vaccine becomes available. The supply should pick up soon.
As of Thursday morning, fewer than one in five adults in Shelby County have received at least one dose. Fewer than one in 10 have received the second dose.
Dr. Threlkeld said that while the variants are more contagious and potentially more deadly, the vaccines do seem to protect against them.