The Center City Development Corp. approved $80,000 exterior-improvement grants to help developers revive three vacant buildings scattered in the Edge District, gave support to a renovation at a key intersection in the South City neighborhood, created a new grant program, and forgave a batch of existing loans.

Nearly 1,000 people in Shelby County due second doses could start receiving them in the last week of January.

Charisse Madlock-Brown leads a group looking at social determinants of health in a massive, NIH-funded database representing 2.5 million people tested for COVID in about 75 clinical centers around the nation.

Dr. Brown holds numerous positions in genetics, genomics and pediatrics at UTHSC.

Haushalter: “We are scheduled to receive 8,900 doses in one week; only a portion is coming to public health. We do not have sufficient supply. We have sufficient resources and manpower.”

Early results on who has received vaccine so far in Shelby County and Tennessee show some disparities, with a large percentage of recipients statewide being of “unknown” race, which is a problem, experts say. 

Methodist Le Bonheur president and CEO is the ninth recipient of the national award.

Through January, the Shelby County Health Department will be vaccinating in a drive-thru line at the Pipkin Building. 

“It will give us the fuel to move our vision research forward,” said the director of the Hamilton Eye Institute. 

Variant doesn’t appear to be more virulent but could ramp reproduction rate here from 1.07 to 1.57 and dramatically increase deaths. 

Appointments may be made online, now. People without internet access may call 901-222-SHOT to schedule an appointment beginning Monday at 8 a.m.

Portal will not reduce demand for the shot or scarcity of supply, but is expected to eliminate long lines, disappointment.

The Shelby County Health Department says more than 24,000 COVID-19 shots have been given in Shelby County so far.

Director Alisa Haushalter says the early days of the rollout are going to be bumpy and people will have to make their vaccination plans based on where and to whom the shots are being given that day.

Drive-thru sites were busy all weekend; the Health Department will announce later this week when and where drive-thru sites will reopen. 

The Tennessee Health Department adds elderly to vaccine priority list in 10-year swaths, starting with those 75 and older. 

Two drive-thru stations have a combined capacity to vaccinate 3,000 people a week.

Last month, the FTC said it would fight the merger, claiming it would significantly reduce competition for treatments that require at least one night in a hospital.

For perspective, the death toll for first nine months of the pandemic is 821 as of Tuesday, Dec. 22.

Roland Cruickshank leaves after fewer than three years at the helm.

Move completes the second phase of a program MLH started in 2019 to increase minimum pay across the system.

The numbers will be updated twice a week.

New health directive released Monday afternoon puts more restrictions on businesses. 

Related story: Suburban, county leaders still have concerns about revised health directive

A temporary $300 per week supplemental jobless benefit and a $600 direct stimulus payment to most Americans is part of the pact. 

The first truckload of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine destined for U.S. administration sites rolled into the FedEx Express world hub in Memphis about 9:45 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 20.