Baptist-Memphis hospital to close to visitors
One of the Mid-South’s major medical centers has announced it is taking action to respond to growing concerns about the coronavirus outbreak.
Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis Friday announced in a Facebook post it was temporarily suspending visitation to patients as of Sunday evening, Aug. 16, at 9 p.m.
In a statement, the hospital said the action was being taken because Tennessee “specifically Shelby County, metropolitan Memphis, as well as Arkansas and Mississippi – continue to be hot spots for the spread of COVID-19.”
As of Saturday, Aug. 15, the Shelby County Health Department reported a total of 24,803 positive cases of coronavirus in the county, with 256 newly confirmed cases compared to the previous day. There were 3,835 active positive cases in Shelby County and 20,647 recovered cases of the virus. A total of 321 people have died from the virus in Shelby County.
The announcement does not include Southaven’s Baptist-DeSoto hospital, however, according to a spokeswoman for Baptist Memorial Healthcare in a phone conversation Saturday evening. Visitation has been restricted since the outbreak began earlier this year.
The announcement does have an effect in DeSoto County, because there may be county residents being treated there or family members from DeSoto County may have loved ones in the Memphis hospital.
On Saturday, Aug. 15, DeSoto County was reporting 3,888 positive cases of COVID-19 confirmed with one additional death reported, for a total of 34. Seven of the deaths have been in long-term care facilities.
