UPDATE: New data from the Shelby County Health Department shows the county’s highest concentrations of coronavirus are in Cordova, East Memphis, and South Memphis.
A heat map issued by the department Tuesday (below) showed Midtown and East Memphis as the largest virus hot spot in the county. Health officials issued a new map showing cases by ZIP code Wednesday afternoon after members of the media requested it.
Shelby County Health Department
The ZIP codes with the highest coronavirus are 38106, 38108, 38028, 38119, 38120, and 38109 — all with between 28 and 40 cases each. Downtown and Midtown ZIP codes have between 12 and 20 cases.
ORIGINAL POST: The Shelby County Health Department is starting to compile and make available a ton of demographic information about the coronavirus pandemic here.
A glance at some of the early figures shows Midtown and East Memphis as the county’s hottest hot spots and that millennials are proving to be the most affected (or have tested positive for the virus so far).
So, here’s the health department’s newly released heat map of coronavirus cases (data is current to Monday, March 30th):
Shelby County Health Department
Here are (crudely) Memphis neighborhoods overlaid on the heat map:
Shelby County Health Department
So far, the virus has tested positive in males and females almost the same (of those who have been tested, of course):
Shelby County Health Department
The health department and Mayor Jim Strickland have published the demographics by age almost since the beginning.
Shelby County Health Department
Here’s what Strickland had to say about it in his update Tuesday:
“One initial common misconception with this virus has been that it only effects people over 60 years old. By the numbers—that’s simply not true, especially in Shelby County. The health department puts out a graph in their daily update, and I include it each day in here.
Today, I want to call special attention to the numbers in that graph.
Shelby County confirmed cases:
11-20-year-olds= 4.7%
21-30-year-olds= 22.7%
31-40-year-olds= 19.1%
41-50-year-olds= 16%
51-60-year-olds= 17.4 %
Grand Total= 79.9% of COVID-19 cases in Shelby County have been in people 60 or younger.
We’ve limited access to parks, shut down bars, reduced restaurants to take-out and delivery only, and required many other businesses to temporarily close their doors. We are doing everything we can to slow the spread, but we cannot do it without the public taking this seriously.
The virus doesn’t care if you’re younger or older. It doesn’t care if your black or white, and it doesn’t care how much money you have. The virus does not discriminate.”
Also, we’ve seen the cases of positive tests rise in graphs like these:
Shelby County Health Department
But the numbers have not always been even, especially if you look at the dates a new virus case was reported (top) and the dates of when virus symptoms first showed on patients (below):
Shelby County Health Department
Shelby County Health Department
Finally, here you can see the county’s overall testing rate:
Shelby County Health Department
