City, county arranges extra morgue capacity
Memphis and Shelby County are making plans for expanded morgue capacity in the event that deaths from COVID-19 outstrip the area’s ability to handle them, Shelby County Health Director Alisa Haushalter said Tuesday.
“We’ve also partnered closely with the West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center . ... We’ve also put an agreement in place for expanded morgue capacity in the event that we would need that as well . ... Plans for (a) surge have continued and not abated during this pandemic,” Haushalter said during the Memphis and Shelby County joint taskforce briefing in response to a question about hospital capacity.
As the number of COVID-19 cases has risen over the past several week, so have hospitalizations and deaths. Earlier in the pandemic, Memphis-area hospitals had a combined 477 staffed intensive care units. During the past two weeks, that has declined to between 440 to 450, giving the region less wiggle room if COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to climb.
As of Tuesday, there have been 244 Covid-19-related deaths in Shelby County . Of those, 59 have been reported since June 30. The seven days between July 8 and July 14 — with 28 reported deaths — tied for the deadliest week of the pandemic so far.
The rate of hospitalizations continued to climb during the first three weeks of July, though it ebbed and flowed. On July 1, the 7-day average of hospitalizations was 235. On Monday, that average was 334.
Memphis-area hospital capacity reached red status — 90 percent or more beds occupied — on July 14. It stayed at that level for three days, then dipped to yellow status — between 80 and 90 percent occupied — on Saturday where it has remained since.
Haushalter said the area, and hospitals, continue to prepare for a surge in hospitalizations. According to Memphis and Shelby County task-force data, there have been up to 225 reserve intensive-care units built or prepared during the pandemic.
“There is a surge committee that meets regularly throughout the week. And they are always looking at what are the triggers that would cause them to take action as a collective group, but also each hospital has their own internal triggers for building their search capacity. simultaneously,” Haushalter said. “The state health department also has their preliminary criteria in place for opening the alternate care site we know that we have plenty of bed capacity there.”
At 495 Union Ave., which oncehoused The Commercial Appeal, there is a 400-bed hospital built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It has about 370 acute care beds and about 30 intensive-care units.