Mayor Conger: ‘We have the largest number of COVID patients for any hospital in the State of Tennessee’

JACKSON, Tenn. — Certain numbers are showing masks are working to some extent in Madison County, but the hospital is hitting record high numbers of COVID-19 patients.

“We have the largest number of COVID patients for any hospital in the state of Tennessee,” said City of Jackson Mayor Scott Conger.

Since March, there’s been one reason for all of the mandates put in effect in Madison County.

“The tagline, the strategy has evolved, since March, because we learned new things,” Conger said. “But, the main focus and priority have stayed the same. We have to protect our healthcare system.”

And Wednesday’s report from West Tennessee Healthcare is a perfect example of why we have to do that.

“We have our highest number ever of COVID positive patients in the hospital at 109,” said Amy Garner, chief compliance and communications officer for West Tennessee Healthcare. “There’s a limit to what we can do.”

Garner continued, “I worry at some point we are going to have to turn away patients that need ICU beds in this region. And the issue is there’s nowhere to send them. There’s nowhere that has ICU capacity that we need right now.”

The health department also offered proof that the masks are working in Madison County.

“When you look at our numbers, and the number of people we have hospitalized, and that we have no patient on the ventilator this morning, but yet you look at the hospital numbers and you see that there are 20 positive COVID patients that are on ventilators and they’re not from Madison County, those patients are coming from surrounding counties where they are not using masks at all,” said Kim Tedford, regional director of the Jackson-Madison County Regional Health Department.

Social distancing is just as important. Coronavirus spreads through droplets from your nose and mouth. So keeping six feet away from people keeps the droplets from traveling and landing on you.

And remember, if you’re exposed to a positive COVID-19 patient, you have to quarantine for the full 14 days — no matter if you get tested or not.

Flu season is also just around the corner. Tedford says they’ll start working on exactly how they’ll give vaccines, and you can expect drive-up vaccines available in the future.