Inside Memphis’ response to virus
City’s reaction builds to civil emergency
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s trip to Dallas two weeks ago got cut short.
As officials restricted access to the American Athletic Conference basketball tournament because of the novel coronavirus pandemic on March 11, the danger of the spread began to grip Strickland. That urgency would build over the next 12 hours.
On March 12, the tournament now canceled, Strickland, a student of history, went to the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.
He lingered at the Sept. 11 exhibits for a few moments, getting a glimpse of what leadership amid a crisis looked like.
His own experience with an unprecedented challenge had already started. The thing the mayor had read warily about for weeks was here.
After the museum, he hopped in the car for the roughly seven-hour ride back to Memphis.
Strickland made a flurry of phone calls during that ride. One to Doug Mcgowen, the city’s chief operating officer. Another went to Dr. Manoj Jain, the infectious disease expert who has advised the city about how to confront the pandemic. He called other staffers and medical professionals, too.
The city needed a plan. Community spread of the coronavirus seemed inevitable. Those phone calls and the urgent meetings in the days that followed set the stage for a series of executive orders from Strickland. Those would restrict commerce, close businesses and shut the city down. But that’s what it would
to hopefully save Memphians’ lives. Memphis, and the world around it, would change in a matter of days.
“It’s hard to believe Wednesday (March 11) I was driving to Dallas for a basketball game. How the world has changed,” Strickland said in an interview March 16.
This account of Memphis’ response to the pandemic is based on numerous interviews with city officials and others. In some cases, sources were granted anonymity to detail sensitive conversations and explain how decisions were made.
From slow start to rapid changes
The first known case of coronavirus in Shelby County was announced March 8 at a rare Sunday news conference. While the announcement contained grave news, it was not followed by immediate action. Life continued as normal for much of the next week.
But as Strickland raced back towards Memphis four days later, things had changed. Schools closed. Sports stopped. People in Shelby County began to descend on grocery stores. Public worry about the virus, which had been in the U.S. since at least January, began to catch up with reality.
As that week turned toward the weekend, Jain went from the unofficial consultant to hired Strickland adviser. City senior staff began to meet at 8 a.m. each morning at the City’s Office of Emergency Management on Avery Avenue. The time officials have spent there over the past several weeks has already outstripped the rest of Strickland’s tenure. This week, for safety’s sake, the meetings went virtual.
A dialogue also began with the Memphis Restaurant Association about how businesses could remain open without having crowds.
On Monday, March 16, at Strickland’s urging, the restaurant association would release voluntary guidelines about seating, menu usage and keeping the combination of patrons and employees below 50. Even as those guidelines took effect, the Strickland administration drafted executive orders that would increase the regulatory pressure. That included breaking the safety glass on the Memtake
phis City Charter and declaring a civil emergency, something not done it 42 years.
St. Patrick’s Day on Beale Street, normally a hectic, merry day of boozing, was muted. But some celebrations continued elsewhere. Celtic Crossing had its usual celebration complete with overflow tents behind the Cooper-young bar.
Strickland: Memphis faces a choice in outcomes
Strickland’s subordinates describe him as someone who does not micromanage.
He is willing to listen to reason and use data to inform his decision-making.
That comfort with delegation has paved the way for Jain to become a key decision-maker in the Strickland administration.
It was Jain whose advice largely convinced Strickland that the time for voluntary social-distancing measures was over and the time to declare a civil emergency was upon Memphis.
Memphis drafted the civil emergency declaration, which gives the mayor powers to closes businesses and issue a curfew, on Tuesday, March 17.
An early morning phone call with Jain, two days later, made Strickland believe it was time to use it. The message: Shelby County could have community spread of the virus.
The sober realization was something officials had been waiting on for days. Later that day, after the Shelby County Health Department acknowledged there was likely community spread of the virus, Strickland issued the order, effective at midnight Thursday. It was followed by a further expansion of banned businesses Saturday and a shelter-in-place order Monday.
That order came after Jain’s data showed that no government intervention could cause 405,000 people in the metro area to get infected and 8,104 could die, overwhelming the area’s hospital capacity.
Memphis’ response to the virus and the actions it took put Strickland, and the city, in a different role than it had when it was first announced. At that initial news conference, Strickland said the city stood ready to assist. In some ways, it seems to have taken the lead.
For example, in recent days, the city has published the number of new infections before the Shelby County Health Department. It, like other large Tennessee cities, has put up its own COVID-19 website.
There are a few reasons for the role Memphis has played, according to people familiar with the matter.
One is Memphis’ size. It is the major city in a county where the rest of the municipalities combined don’t equal even half of Memphis’ population.
The other is a little more delicate. Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris’ departure for Ghana March 12 — the same day Strickland returned from his canceled vacation — left a leadership vacuum and Memphis stepped in to fill it, senior city officials said.
After Harris’ early return from the schedule Memphis in May trip last week, he promptly declared a state of emergency.
He and municipal Shelby County mayors have joined Memphis in establishing a task-force to combat the virus.
The municipal mayors have been in frequent contact over the past week.
Suburban municipalities quickly followed Memphis with their own shelter-at-home orders.
In public comments this week and in an interview this weekend, Strickland said Memphis faces a choice in outcomes — between South Korea and Italy. The latter has been forced to ration life-saving treatments while deaths skyrocketed.
The former, with widespread testing, flattened its curve of infection. Strickland believes the city is weeks away from the number of infections peaking and still has time to flatten the curve.
“I am confident that we have the ability to slow down the virus if our citizens really take this seriously and seriously practice social-distancing. We’ve tried to lead the way,” Strickland said. “From the folks who have educated me on this issue, I think we are weeks away from the peak . ... We have the power to do that.”
Samuel Hardiman covers Memphis city government and politics for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached by email at samuel. hardiman@commercialappeal.com.