Officials discuss geofence tracking, local economy in latest update
JACKSON, Tenn. — The Jackson-Madison County Regional Health Department is continuing to see more positive cases of COVID-19, and now some are being linked to community spread.
“We’re talking about people being out in congregate settings and it being spread that way,” said Kim Tedford, Director of Jackson-Madison County Regional Health Department.
But Tedford says we’re not seeing big increases in numbers from day to day, so the shelter at home order is working.
“I just want to remind everybody it’s very important we continue to social distance ourselves and practice those social distance measures we’ve put into place,” Tedford said.
West Tennessee Healthcare has tested 1002 people across all of their facilities now, and Jackson-Madison County General Hospital’s ability to test in house is helping keep more employees on the job.
“We are getting reagents and we’re still trying to get more reagents so we can run those different pieces of equipment and increase our testing capacity,” said Amy Garner of West Tennessee Healthcare.
Jackson Mayor Scott Conger and the health department are also working on a way to track where people are going during the pandemic. He says it doesn’t collect any personal data.
“A company we’re working with, they’ve put up geofencing on every single grocery store and retail store [that] is still open and then on every major thoroughfare in the city of Jackson,” Mayor Conger said.
And the mayors are still figuring out exactly how and when they can reopen the economy in Jackson and Madison County.
“While we are hopefully gearing up for businesses to be open and all like that, it’s not imminent. It is at least two weeks away,” said Madison County Mayor Jimmy Harris.
“There’s light at the end of the tunnel,” Mayor Conger said. “We know this is not going to be a permanent thing. Just hold on a little while longer, we will get there.”
The health department and West Tennessee Healthcare will have two drive-thru testing sites this weekend at the fairgrounds. Anyone can come to be tested and they expect it to take five to seven days to get those results.
