Shelby County health officials credit a slight downward trend in coronavirus cases to increased masking and stricter regulations on bars and restaurants.
The improvment in case numbers follows weeks of exponential growth and slow turnaround for testing.
The average number of new COVID cases per day over the past week is about 250, down from between about 350-400 in the two weeks prior. The weekly positivity rate is still about 5 percent higher than the Health Department’s goal of 10 percent, but it also has fallen slightly since mid-July.
Health Department Director Dr. Alisa Haushalter says testing is starting to move at a faster pace.
“We’re back down to a one- to three-day turn around on average,” she said at Tuesday’s press briefing. “Occasionally, it’s slightly longer, but that’s a significant improvement over what we had two weeks ago.”
But hospitalizations for COVID patients still remain high. As of Tuesday, area ICU beds were more than 90 percent full.
Still, Haushalter says health directives are working. More people are wearing masks in public, and limits on restaurants’ operating hours and services are reducing opportunities to spread the virus. Dining rooms should close by 10 p.m., guests can sit no longer than two hours for a meal and must be seated at a table to be served alcohol.
Limited service restaurants and bars have been closed since early July. The Health Department recently said it’s possible to reopen them if a list of positive metrics are met, including cases trending downward for two weeks and dropping to an average of 180 per day.