MEMPHIS, Tenn. — "We are truly all in this together," Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said.
Thursday, a renewed call to action, as Shelby County attempts to stop the surge and spread of COVID-19. This, as the Memphis area set two single-day records in three days with new reported cases.
"Wearing a mask protects you and the people around you. Right now is a critical time to slow this virus down," Mayor Strickland said.
Mayor Strickland said the city's mask ordinance led to 324 complaints and 124 warnings to date. He said two businesses - a neighborhood market and a Kroger - were given a court summons. The grocery store company announced customers would be required to wear masks at all nationwide stores next week.
"You will not see individuals cited with violating the city ordinance. What you'll see is businesses that are not enforcing it on their customers," Mayor Strickland said.
Thursday morning, health experts met with Shelby County mayors, as they finalize new 'tripwires', specific data milestones that would trigger restrictions or closures at certain types of businesses. Full details will be rolled out in a week or so.
"If we get the majority of the public to wear masks, we won't have to implement those other interventions," Shelby County Health Director Dr. Alisa Haushalter said.
The area's COVID-19 Joint Task Force said a continued concern is challenging wait times for test results. This week, lags at testing labs meant some days of reported cases included results dating back two or three weeks after a test was taken.
"This really impacts our contact tracing and ability to do contact tracing when we do a significant number of reports in one day," Dr. Haushalter said.
Thursday, a new ad campaign also launched in Shelby County, providing COVID-19 related information in Spanish. More than a quarter of the total COVID-19 cases came from the area's Latinx community.
