About 3,000 people took part in free precautionary COVID testing offered by the Shelby County Health Department last weekend. Many of those, looking for reassurance that it was safe to join relatives for the holiday, showed no signs of illness.
Nearly one in ten people tested positive.
City of Memphis Chief Operating Officer Doug McGowan says those numbers should make anyone think twice about attending a gathering where participants have not been tested.
“I encourage all of you to know your status,” McGowan said at a Tuesday press briefing. “And don’t gather with anybody who does not know for sure that they are COVID negative.”
Officials realize that getting people to pare down one of the biggest family dinners of the year is a tough sell. So they are already focusing on the days after Thanksgiving, when newly infected people start showing signs that they’ve come down with the virus.
“If you are feeling ill, do not go to work,” McGowan says. “Do not go to school. Do not go to the grocery store. Do not socialize with your friends if you are symptomatic.”
These pleadings come as some businesses,such as suburban gyms, are asking their patrons to speak out against mask mandates. At arecent county commission meeting, one citizen argued that masks were anti-Christian. But heath department Director Alisa Haushalter says the virus itself is revealing that the moral lapse isn’t on the government directives.
Recent data show that at least half of people who are symptomatic ignore their illness and continue to hang out in public spaces.
“And that includes gyms, restaurants and so on,” Haushalter says.
Health officials say this could be the last Thanksgiving for some Shelby County residents.
More than 500 people are forecast to be spending Christmas Day in a hospital bed. At least, those lucky enough to get a bed. This past Sunday, hospitals were at already operating at 90 percent capacity, with just 400 COVID patients.
“Our systems are strained to capacity, so these are difficult decisions,” Haushalter says. “They are not made in isolation.”
She means those decisions made by local government.
As recent data shows, many individuals appear to be thinking only for themselves.
