The first death from COVID-19 was reported in Shelby County March 28. For a while, we didn’t know that, because the governor wasn’t releasing deaths with county names.

Great things have come of being home and self-quarantined. For example, I’ve started reading again – reading voraciously. It started when my mom cleaned out the attic a week ago and found a box of my dad’s old books, including Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” series.

Years from now, our children won’t remember the details of their classes or what exactly they learned in a class during this season. But they will never forget how you made them feel.

This time together will be an exercise in partnership with your children. Define the home as a supportive place for each family member.

I have missed entire seasons of music, art and drama for no good reason at all. Now that they’re closed, they’re all I can think about. 

Between March 12 and March 24, we distributed 1,267,630 pounds of food (154% increase), held 43 Mobile Pantry distributions (330% increase) and served 11,036 households (283% increase). 

Rev. Brad Whitaker was Hamilton County’s first confirmed COVID-19 case. Church leaders and county health officials began notifying anyone who had come in contact with him. That list included Bishop Phoebe Roaf of the Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee.

We are suffering the consequences of a delayed national response in the deployment of test kits and relatively limited access to basic protection equipment for health providers.

Common symptoms such as fever, cough and shortness of breath are touted by the CDC as clues that a person could be infected. In addition, there are new reports that patients with sudden anosmia, a loss of one’s sense of smell, could be infected with the virus.

Tomorrow when someone takes my temperature and hands me a mask and a paper bag, I’ll remember that everybody I’m about to see is also adjusting to new realities.

Yesterday I scraped up someone’s leaky trash bags from the side of the road and threw them into the back of a truck to haul off. It’s hard to believe just two weeks ago I was planning parties, booking bands and editing menus.

For the next four weeks, Explore Bike Share rentals are free of charge to all Memphians, 24/7. 

Coronavirus has disrupted some of my friends’ lives far more than it’s unsettled mine. My senior friends won’t get to have graduation. And my international friends have a real dilemma: Should they stay in the States or go home?

We will soon stop daily deliveries to protect both our clients and our volunteers and staff. That’s why we’re working now to get as many frozen and shelf-stable meals into seniors’ homes as we can, in case a day comes when we can’t deliver at all.

If you love what you hear, let the mix play a few times to be sure the artists see a few pennies. Now is the time to buy that extra record, download an album instead of streaming it, spring for that cool T-shirt or koozie or sticker.

James S. Gilliland and Peter Formanek "changed the life trajectory for many of our students who are often first generation college-goers, and who would, otherwise, have little to no opportunity to contribute meaningfully in our society."

I’m working from home. Cleaning the closets. Playing with the dog. Calling my friends. Promising my children that I’ll stay home – or close to it. And learning how to balance the dread of what we don’t know and can’t see with the beauty of just being here.

“One of our biggest challenges is that many people don’t believe in the seriousness of this pandemic,” Catholic Bishop David Talley told colleagues in a webinar. “Please believe in what science is saying. This is not the devil. This is what science is telling us.”

'One piece of good news is that the other coronaviruses that continue to circulate among humans typically cause very mild illness like a common cold.'

A Facebook page will be the home base for this unified faith effort. You can find the page by searching for Memphis Clergy COVID-19 Response. Anyone can access the page and offer to work on a project.

In the final tally, 3,097 Memphians suffered from the flu and 75 died. However, it is certain that quick action to curtail public gatherings, along with the enthusiastic consent of the citizenry, halted the spread of flu and saved many lives. 

Do we just pray for our environment? Or pray for children being separated from their parents? Or might the faith communities be called to engage in … dare I suggest it … politics?

The most common question I’m asked remains, “When can I get back to work?” Without work, no one gets paid, and without paychecks, kids don’t eat.

The virus is already widespread in the United States, so travel bans and school closures will not stop the virus or prevent individuals from eventually being infected. The most reasonable argument for doing so is to prevent a surge in severe cases that might overwhelm area health systems.

Most recent studies are showing that aggressive intervention earlier in the epidemic can lead to control of the epidemic. This is encouraging news.