New coronavirus cases in Shelby County are straining resources such as testing, hospital capacity and contact tracing.
Earlier this spring and summer, COVID testing sites throughout the county were underutilized—sometimes performing less than half as many daily tests as they could handle. Now, the Shelby County Health Department says most are fully booked. This higher volume has created a problematic backlog.
“We are having increased challenges with the ability to throughput tests,” health department Director Dr. Alisa Haushalter said at Thursday’s press conference. “Some of the test results actually are taking much longer than a week to get back to individuals.”
Officials worry this could deter potentially infected people from remaining quarantined while they wait for results—possibly exposing others to the virus. As the health department falls behind with contact tracing, officials are now asking positive individuals to start the process on their own by advising those people they’ve spent time with to quarantine for two weeks.
New regulations for dine-in restaurants are also designed to assist with contact tracing. Establishments need to keep seating charts with customer contact information for 21 days. This process, along with turning away customers who don’t wear masks, is part of what Haushalter says is the new normal.
“We want to ask people to treat masking as they do ‘no shirt, no shoes, no service,’” she said.
Some confusion remains over recent bar closures in Shelby County, especially for those that consider themselves restaurants. The closing requirement is based on how a facility is licensed with the state.
Haushalter says the health department is prepared to enforce compliance.