A new mask mandate did not materialize when local health and government officials discussed a rise in COVID-19 positive test results in Madison County in the last month.
But Kim Tedford, regional director at the Jackson-Madison County Regional Health Department, offered what she believes is a greater weapon against the virus.
“The No. 1 public health tool we have to fight this are vaccines,” Tedford said, “The latest data shows about 97,859 doses of vaccines have been given in Madison County.
“We’re showing about 54 percent that have had at least one dose of the vaccine, and about 46.8 of the people in Madison County are percent fully vaccinated.”
“We don’t want to give people a mandate on what to do. We’re here to give you information and recommendations from the people that study the data and know most about COVID-19 and the spread.”
Tedford made her comments during an online media briefing, Thursday.
“We’ve actually increased 121 cases since Tuesday morning,” Tedford said, “Looking back at the data I pulled since July 1, we have approximately 600 new cases of COVID-19 in Madison County.
“Right now, we’re close to the 600 mark of active and unknown cases as a total (and) we had to ramp up our contact tracing to contact those individuals that we’ve received positive tests on.
“Our positivity rate in Madison County is sitting a little over 15 percent and that certainly is where we do not want to be. We’re averaging about 150 tests a day – that’s the last seven days – with about 46 positive tests a day.”
Tedford said everyone feels this increase is due to the Delta variant.
“I’m sure you’ve heard a lot about that,” Tedford said, “There are many variants out there … however, the Delta variant is concerning, because it is highly contagious.”
James Ross, West Tennessee Healthcare CEO, said his employees are not immune to COVID-19.
“We have 47 employees out who tested positive,” Ross said, “Two are in the hospital.”
He added the two hospitalized had not been vaccinated, and one employee is being prepared to be put on a ventilator.
“There’s a lot of experts,” Ross said, “If you do nothing else, check the science, read the science that is being put out – the CDC, the World Health Organization – those entities are true scientific- based that are putting information out.”
(PHOTO: Kim Tedford)
