Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris on Monday announced that county and other local officials will enforce a stay-at-home order for residents because of the coronavirus emergency.
“The coronavirus is a major disruption to our way of life,” Harris said.
“And we have to expect that it could be a long-lasting effect on our way or life.”
Harris said he repeatedly met with the mayors of Arlington, Bartlett, Collierville, Memphis, Lakeland, and Germantown — all in Shelby County. He also said each of those mayors will issue their own executive orders that ban non-essential travel and services, likely before close of business Tuesday. The Shelby County government, meanwhile, will issue an executive order for the county’s unincorporated areas, Harris said.
Harris said county officials will also work with officials in neighboring counties, including Lauderdale and Tipton, to encourage social distancing and to reduce and mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.
At Monday’s press conference, Shelby County Health Director Alisa Haushalter said the county had 84 confirmed coronavirus cases. Eighty of those cases, she said, were Shelby County residents. The remaining four of those confirmed coronavirus cases were among out-of-county residents.
Haushalter said that exactly 103 people in the county remain in quarantine.
Harris, last week, issued an executive order requiring the immediate closure of, among other places, restaurants and bars.
As The Tennessee Star reported Monday, Williamson County was behind only Davidson County in having the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the state. But Shelby County tallied up enough cases over the weekend to replace Williamson and now ranks second in the state.
“There are now indications that person-to-person spread in the workplace and the community is taking place,” Shelby County Health Department officials said in a press release Monday.
“The Health Department recommends strict adherence to social-distancing recommendations.”
Those recommendations include the following:
• Stay at home. It is safer to stay at home. Leave home for essential activities only, such as going to work if you are considered essential personnel, the grocery store or pharmacy.
• While Shelby County School students and many others are out of school, keep children home and plan home-based activities.
• Avoid handshakes and close contact with others whenever possible.
• Cancel or postpone gatherings of 10 or more people. Instead of visiting friends or relatives, call or video chat.
• Children and adults may exercise outdoors, while maintaining at least six feet of distance from others.
• Do not go to work or go out in public if you are sick, especially with fever, muscle aches/pains, cough or other respiratory symptoms.
• Avoid all non-essential travel.Re-evaluate travel plans. It is strongly recommended to avoid any unnecessary travel. If traveling overseas, check the CDC’s travel advisory website, which is updated daily: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel. If traveling within the U.S., avoid destinations where COVID-19 has been reported: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/travel-in-the-us.html
• Avoid non-essential flights. Traveling by private vehicle limits exposure to other people.
• Wash your hands thoroughly and often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Scrub dirt under fingernails with a brush and soap
• Practice respiratory etiquette by using a tissue if coughing or sneezing, then throwing the tissue away and washing your hands.
• Sanitize surfaces that are frequently touched by many people with anti-bacterial wipes or diluted bleach solution, or other FDA-approved cleaning products:https://www.americanchemistry.com/Novel-Coronavirus-Fighting-Products-List.pdf.
Watch the full briefing:
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris” by Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris.
