SHELBY COUNTY, Tennessee —
In Shelby County, we learned Monday a virtual summit will be held later this month to help struggling businesses recover and stay afloat during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
There's also more deaths --and more COVID-19 cases-- reported at assisted living facilities and group homes, now nearly a dozen such places with at least two cases.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris voiced his frustration about ongoing concern at those facilities, with one of the most vulnerable populations: senior citizens.
"We have deregulated more than we should have," Mayor Harris said.
As of Monday, there are 71 reported cases: 59 residents and 12 workers and eight deaths, four each at Carriage Court in east Memphis and The Village at Germantown. Nine such facilities in Shelby County have at least COVID-19 cases. The others are Christian Care Center of Memphis, Parkway Health & Rehabilitation Center, Heritage at Irene Woods, King's Daughters and Sons Home, Delta Specialty Home, Hancock Group Home and Lakeside Behavioral Health.
"One area for the Shelby County delegation to think of moving forward is to try and tighten regulations for nursing homes and to make sure that the owners of the nursing homes have a real incentive to make sure there is adequate staffing and sanitation protocols in place," Mayor Harris.
The King's Daughters and Sons administrator Nicole Wiles told Local 24 News in part, "we implemented every step from the Centers for Disease Control. Reporting for duty each day is no longer an act of love and compassion; it is an act of courage."
As Memphis' businesses, Monday the Greater Memphis Chamber announced a virtual summit on April 28th to assist companies large and small, when things eventually but gradually reopen.
"What we hope to accomplish is not the 'who' and the 'when' but the how," Greater Memphis Chamber Chief Public Policy Officer Bobby White said. "What does it look like when you are moving back into your place and wanting to adhere to these new rules and new normals that should exist in the workplace."
Shelby County is now averaging about 750 tests a day, and there's been a total of nearly 20,000 tests to date. That's still only about two percent of Shelby County's entire population.