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Features
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MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2020
Adrian Sainz
MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE (AP) —
Faced with the threat of overbur-
dened hospitals, states across the
United States (US) are converting
convention centres, sports facili-
ties and performance spaces into
backup treatment sites for coro-
navirus patients. Tennessee is
no exception.
What some Memphis residents
do not get is why in their city, a
shopping centre in the middle of a
predominantly black, low-income
residential neighbourhood has
been singled out.
City and state of icials are
concerned that an in lux of pa-
tients from Memphis, as well as
nearby Mississippi, Arkansas and
rural West Tennessee, will strain
hospitals. Their fears are echoed
across the country: Governors,
mayors and health experts in nu-
merous states are also research-
ing and constructing makeshift
medical facilities.
In New York City, they are turn-
ing to the Javits Center conven-
tion site; in Chicago, the McCor-
mick Place Convention Center,
and in Sandy, Utah, the Mountain
America Expo Center.
The US Army Corps of Engi-
neers has been scouting locations
in Tennessee, and of icials here
have compiled a list of 35 pos-
sible backup sites. They have not
released the whole list, but Mem-
phis Mayor Jim Strickland said last
Monday the multi-storey building
that housed The Commercial Ap-
peal before the newspaper moved
out last year has been selected.
Governor Bill Lee has dis-
closed a few: the Music City Cen-
ter in Nashville, the Chattanooga
Convention Center, the Knoxville
Expo Center — all sites away from
residential neighbourhoods.
The Gateway Shopping Cen-
ter in the Nutbush neighbour-
hood of Memphis is different.
The centre features a Save A Lot
grocery store, a Rent-ACenter,
a Family Dollar, beauty supply
shop, Chinese restaurant and
other businesses.
Locating a treatment centre for
coronavirus patients there poses
two problems, residents said: It
could potentially expose them
to the virus amid concerns that
blacks are contracting COVID19
at higher rates; and it could force
some of the stores they rely on
to close.
Nutbush resident and com-
munity volunteer Homer Osborne
said he understands the need
to help coronavirus patients,
but he questions why of icials
chose Gateway.
“There are a lot of poor peo-
ple in this neighbourhood that
come here and shop,” said Os-
borne, who was buying food at
the centre for a home delivery
service he is providing during the
virus outbreak.
Backup coronavirus hospital in Memphis
worries residents
A large section of Gateway Shopping Center scheduled to be converted to a backup coronavirus medical care
facility in Memphis, Tennnessee
Homer Osborne and Patricia Harris laugh as they practise social distancing at Gateway Shopping Center in
Memphis, Tennessee. PHOTOS: AP
“People won’t want to come
over here. It’s just going to kill
this area.”
He also cited a widespread fear
of being unnecessarily exposed to
the virus.
“All around, people are scared,”
he said.
Their fears are not unfounded.
In this majority-black city along
the Mississippi River and other
cities across the nation that have
been hard hit by COVID19, Demo-
cratic lawmakers and community
leaders have been sounding the
alarm over what they see as a
disturbing trend of the virus kill-
ing African Americans at a higher
rate. They also have cited a lack of
overall information about the race
of victims as the nation’s death
toll mounts.
Nutbush resident Patricia Har-
ris wondered aloud if city of icials
were “trying to contaminate”
the neighbourhood.
Activist Earle Fisher under-
stands the anxiety. Residents in
Memphis’ predominantly black
neighbourhoods are already suf-
fering from insuf icient COVID19
testing, a dearth of reliable infor-
mation about the virus, and inad-
equate access to masks and other
personal protection supplies,
he said.
“This is an honest and reason-
able concern and scepticism,”
Fisher said. “I think it’s par for the
course for black people to be righ-
teously skeptical of governmental
intervention that did not consult
with people on the ground irst.”
The city’s Chief Operating
Of icer Doug McGowen said the
Gateway site was being consid-
ered because it could potentially
accommodate hundreds of beds.
He said if it were converted to
a treatment site, it would hold
only mildly ill coronavirus pa-
tients who could be quickly trans-
ported to a hospital should their
conditions worsen.
Memphis of icials said the
Gateway site was put on the list
in response to a request from the
state’s coronavirus team to identi-
fy large, available buildings where
an alternate treatment facility
could be located.
“The task of inding space
to shelter hundreds of potential
patients is not one of choice but
necessity,” the of icials said in
a statement.
For the vast majority of peo-
ple who have the coronavirus,
symptoms clear up in several
weeks without requiring hospi-
talisation, but the consequences
can be life-threatening for older
people and those with existing
health problems.
For Nutbush residents, their
fear of contracting the virus is
matched with the worry that they
could lose stores that are vital to
the neighborhood. Of icials have
not said if stores would close if
the Gateway facility was opened.
If they did, shopping would be-
come more dif icult for residents,
especially for those who are old or
have no means of transportation
to stores located further away.
“For people who don’t have a
car, what do they do?” asked Har-
ris, who spoke to The Associated
Press while lugging a bottle of de-
tergent, a package of bottled wa-
ter and other items from the Save
A Lot to her car.
She noted that a grocery store
recently closed near her house
and she already has to travel fur-
ther to get to Gateway.
“When we do things, we’ve
got to consider the people in
the neighbourhood,” she said.
“We don’t need to make the
neighbourhood worse than it
already is.”
US
Representative
Steve
Cohen, a Memphis Democrat,
said the decision does not
make sense.
“I’m sure there are other places
that would work, and they should
have used those rather than go
into a residential neighbourhood,”
Cohen said.
Nutbush residents understands the need
to help coronavirus patients, but question
why oficials chose a shopping centre in the
middle of a predominantly black, low-income
residential neighbourhood.