Hang on to your mask.
Clues dropped about the next Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) directive indicate citizens will be wearing face masks for a little while longer. Dr. Michelle Taylor, the SCHD director, would not divulge specifics about the new directive — or give a direct answer on face masks here — but said her department will use data to make the decision and “we’re not there yet.”
Taylor said about 13,000 Shelby County citizens have not had Covid or the Covid shot and are still vulnerable to infection. Also, about 92,000 children aged 5 to 11 here are not yet eligible for a vaccine. Add them together, and she said about 25 percent — one in four — of the county’s population could still get the virus.
We are asking people to be patient with us.
Dr. Michelle Taylor, Shelby County Health Department director
“With that in mind,” she said, “we are asking people to be patient with us. We want to protect everyone in the county. We know people are tired of the 19-month marathon but if we keep those mitigation efforts in place a little longer, especially for the upcoming holiday season and we get that 5 to 11 year old age group vaccinated, then we can start to talk about easing restrictions.”
The clues about a further mask mandate come at a time of a weeks-long fall of just about every Covid data point in Shelby County. The seven-day rolling average of new cases, the reproductive rate of the virus, hospitalizations, and the number of new cases are all falling routinely from the Delta-variant surge this summer. One figure — the weekly positivity rate of new tests — rose this week, Taylor said, but the figure was pushed higher on lower testing volumes.
The new health directive is expected late next week as the current directive is set to expire.
Taylor said her department is readying for the arrival of vaccine doses for kids aged 5 to 11. SCHD is in constant communication with the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) on a distribution plan. Just as with the early roll out of the adult vaccine, Tennessee will get an allotment of pediatric doses just like other states. SCHD will be able to pre-order doses “very soon,” Taylor said.
The SCHD has also been working with local businesses in preparation of a proposed federal rule on vaccine mandates. The Occupational Health and Safety Adminstration (OSHA) has proposed a vaccine mandate for all companies with more than 100 employees. She said she’s urged businesses here to talk with their lawyers on the best way to comply with the proposal.
