Shelby County administered a record number of tests Monday with 2,615 tests performed, surpassing the Health Department’s goal of 2,400 per day, according to data released Tuesday.

The spike comes the day after Shelby County Health Department Director Alisa Haushalter said only 37% of tests were utilized last week. Dr. Bruce Randolph, health officer, also encouraged people who are asymptomatic to get testing.

The increase in tests also showed 116 new cases of coronavirus in Shelby County, the largest daily hike since April 18. But that came with the increased testing, and the daily positivity rate reported Tuesday is slightly more than 4.4%.

Shelby County health officials have emphasized that as testing increases, positive tests will too. The overall positivity rate in Shelby County continues to decline and is slightly less than 7.1% overall.

In early May, the county’s overall rate of positive cases was about 8.7%. Shelby County health officials want the rate at less than 10%.

More details regarding the increased tests and how the area is adapting as it moves into Phase 2 is expected at the daily noon briefing with health and government officials.

While the county reports 2,537 have recovered from coronavirus, three new deaths were reported for a total of 88. The number is the most new deaths reported since Friday. While 3,877 cases of coronavirus have been reported since March 9, Shelby County said 1,252 are currently active. 

The city of Memphis estimates about 142 people have been hospitalized due to COVID-19 and about 53 are in intensive care.

In Shelby County, the virus has heavily affected African Americans. More than 67% of the cases in Shelby County affect African Americans. 

Haushalter said the hospital data was considered for advancing to Phase 2.

“What we did was we looked at the data to determine if those hospitalizations were related to COVID or not,” Haushalter said.

Sunday healthcare executives, Haushalter, Doug McGowen, Memphis chief operating officer, and David Sweat, Health Department chief of epidemiology, met about more use of hospital beds, but determined it was unrelated to COVID.

“We felt comfortable that the needs of Shelby County can be met with our current healthcare system capacity and that the partners would share with us in the event they ran into any barriers,” Haushalter said.

Some patients are remaining in hospitals but cannot return to nursing homes due to positive COVID-19 cases in the facilities.

At this time hospitals believe they have capacity. The alternate care site at 495 Union is ready but not needed at this time.

She said the health department is examining the impact of COVID-19 on hospitals and whether hospitals can provide services to all patients.