Updated March 22 at 3:01 p.m.
Entertainment and recreational facilities in Memphis—including theaters, bowling allies and vaping lounges—faced mandatory closure Saturday night, expanding the list of establishments that Mayor Jim Strickland has ordered to suspend services.
All city bars and restaurants closed Friday morning and Shelby County ordered those same businesses in the surrounding municipalities to shutter no later than Sunday morning.
Officials—including from the Health Department— are still encouraging residents to patronize restaurants' delivery and takeout options. Restaurants in Memphis can now also sell beer to-go.
Strickland said he will be making more "difficult decisions," hinting at the possibility of a "shelter in place" order. Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris has indicated a similar posture.
"There will be additional actions forthcoming," Harris said at a press conference Saturday afternoon at which the Health Department confirmed 42 local cases of COVID-19. "We [the municipal mayors] will try as best we can to act in unison."
Other cities, counties and even states are only permitting residents to leave their homes for essential business such as trips to the grocery store.
As of Monday, the county commission will conduct its meetings online. Residents can watch live from the commission's website starting at 3 p.m.
"This is the first time we've ever done this," said Chairman Mark Billingsley. "We did a dry run on Friday. It went very, very well."
As of Sunday afternoon, cases had jumped to 66 in the county.
"There is continued spread within family units, work units, as well as now into the community," Health Department Director Alisa Haushalter said, adding that the department will soon be placing a "significant number" of people in quarantine—those that have come in direct contact for at least 10 minutes with a confirmed case.
As of Saturday, around 70 people in the county were in some sort of 14-day quarantine.
"It's very challenging because you are confined to your house," Haushalter said. "The only exceptions to that are if you needed to mow your grass, and no one's around, you can do that. You could do some gardening...but you can't go to the grocery store."
As cases mount, additional staff are needed to help with "contact tracing," or identifying those who need to be quarantined. Haushalter said the department will be able to "double or triple" its workforce with help from area medical schools.
Gov. Bill Lee is now asking private labs to report the total number of tests they process, including negative results. Previously, the state only required notice of positive cases. This change will give a more complete picture of how many tests have been conducted in the county.
Tennessee now has almost 400 cases of coronavirus. On Friday, a Nashville man became the state’s first virus-related death.
This post and headline have been updated to reflect new confirmed cases of COVID-19.