Photo by Luc Brown
Jackson-Madison County Regional Health Department reported four new cases of the novel coronavirus in Madison County Wednesday morning, bringing the total of confirmed cases in the county to 51.
Kim Tedford, executive director of the JMCR Heath Dept., said the number of cases is expected to go up Wednesday afternoon because that is when a reporting system, used by private labs, which crashed Tuesday night, is expected to be up and running again.
Tedford, during a Wednesday morning virtual media briefing, said the only information she has about the new patients is that three are females and one is male, most were tested in private labs and one of the females is the spouse of a previously announced positive case.
Tedford also spoke about the two Criminal Justice Complex employees who tested positive for COVID-19, stating that one was a Madison County resident and one was from outside the county. She said she and a staff member went to the CJC Tuesday to meet with the administration and staff, who were understandably scared and had a lot of questions.
Tedford said they explained the health department’s procedures, answered questions and told those who had close contact with those employees to self-quarantine. She said there are no plans to test inmates because the infected workers had no contact with inmates and no inmate is symptomatic.
Tedford said that even though there are models that are showing better numbers, this is no time for anyone to get lax on CDC guidelines or executive orders.
“We are all at risk,” she said.
In fact, Tedford said she hopes the local Stay At Home executive orders will stay in place for “a few more weeks” and that she will encourage Madison County Mayor Jimmy Harris and City of Jackson Mayor Scott Conger to do so.
Both mayors said they intend to extend their executive orders an additional week.
For those essential workers, Tedford said they should do everything they know they should to protect themselves and others. Those things are:
-Take your temperature when you go home
-Take your shoes off before you go in the house
-Take off your work clothes and wash them
-Take a shower
Amy Garner, West Tennessee Healthcare Chief Compliance & Communications Officer, said 729 people have been tested system-wide, with 37 positives, 543 negatives and 149 cases still pending. Ten patients are hospitalized and three patients are on ventilators.
Find more information about COVID-19 from the Tennessee Department of Health at https://www.tn.gov/health/cedep/ncov. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated information and guidance available online at www.cdc.gov/COVID19.