MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Shelby County Health Department will be making some announcements this Friday as the county continues to see increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases.
Dr. Alisa Haushalter said health officials are scheduled to meet with all the mayors this week before the announcement on Friday. She wouldn’t go into detail on what that would entail.
She said based on the data, health officials may have to look at the possibility of closures to help mitigate the spread of the virus.
Shelby County is also looking at getting a vaccine for the virus sometime between December and February.
The meeting with the Shelby County Commission comes a day after the health department reported 835 new cases, a single-day record number of COVID-19 cases. That brings the total for the county to 43,641 positive cases since the pandemic began in March.
Approximately 613 people have died.
As of Wednesday, there are also currently 397 COVID-19 positive patients being treated at hospitals in Shelby County. That’s an increase from Monday when they had 335.
That is of note for health officials because, combined with the non-COVID patients, hospitals are currently operating at 91 percent utilization when it comes to acute care. In the ICU departments, it’s 89 percent.
