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{VIRUS WATCH

B y To b y S e l l s Brutal July Edited by Will Shortz

ACROSS Crossword 34 Classy articles Edited by Will Shortz Signs of optimism emerge a er virus surge. 68 “… or ___!” 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 No. 0713 David Sweat’s team is usually chasing food-borne illnesses this time of year. Salmonella. E coli. Legionnaires’ disease. Maybe they’d be watching for mosquitos carrying West Nile virus, too. But there’s nothing usual about 2020, of course. Now, Sweat’s team is chasing COVID-19.  at chase in July was “just brutal,” as the virus surged in Shelby County and in many parts of the country. Sweat is the Deputy Division Director for the Shelby County Health Department. He’s the person in charge of the COVID Response Unit. He’s also the health department’s Chief of Epidemiology. So he chuckled a bit when asked if he’s been keeping busy. His team wrangles data from far-  ung sources and streams it into those charts and graphs that make news in Memphis every single morning.  at data is the data. It’s how we gauge the spread of the virus in the community. His team also has those contact tracers we’ve heard so much about.  ey talk to those newly diagnosed with the virus, ask them where they’ve been, who they’ve seen, and contact those people.  ey’ll also put them in quarantine, too, if necessary. July was brutal, as Sweat said, but he sees hints of optimism out there.  ough, he warns, “We’re not out of the woods yet.” — Toby Sells MF:What do you hope the public gets from the data the health department posts every day? DS: We’re trying to show the pattern to the community, to help the community understand why we are taking the measures that we’re taking. Why are we pushing masking? Why did we close the bars? Why did we put a 10 p.m. curfew on alcohol sales? Why have all these things been done to try to interfere with the virus’ ability to of infection, the spike in the cases, the acceleration in reports, and positivity rate of tests to help people understand the rationale [of implementing health measures]. Are there signs of optimism out there? Yes, there are. It’s a little early and we don’t want to make too much of it — and it certainly doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods. July was brutal. July was just brutal.  e  rst 20 days of July were really hard for us. But now we’re seeing that the daily case counts, the daily positivity rates since around July 20th or so, are starting to come down again. Beginning with the week of May 17th to May 23rd, we went from 4.5 percent positivity to 5.6 percent positivity. Since then, we’ve had nine straight weeks of climbing positivity ratings. Last week —  nally — it started to go down again. We do believe that the best explanation of why is health directive No. 8 [that closed bars and closed restaurants at 10 p.m.].  ere was also a mask mandate written for the whole county and the city of Memphis, and other local ordinances requiring people to wear masks.  e bar closures are also probably contributing to the number declining again because 54 percent of our cases are between 18 and 54 years old. So, over half of the cases are in that David Sweat COURTESY OF SHELBY COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT 1 Reamer or wrench 5 Danglers on luggage 11 Cruise amenity 14 Where icicles may hang 15 World ___ (October event) 16 Center of a poker table 17 Arm exercise at a dairy farm? 19 Engine lubricant 20 “Ben-___” 21 Fruit in a holiday gift box 22 Hawaiian coffee region 23 Any boat 25 Shoulder exercise at a cutlery store? 29 Clip, as a coupon 32 Jeers 33 Currier and ___ of neckwear 37 Wrist exercise at a candy factory? 43 Highest point in an orbit 44 Region 45 Swizzle stick 49 Fame 51 Chest exercise at a vintner’s? 54 Itching desire 55 Small whirlpool 56 What a relaxed soldier is at 58 One of four for a grand slam, in brief 61 Face on a fiver 62 What the exercise regimen in 17-, 25-, 37- and 51-Across is worth? 66 Traditional Father’s Day gift 67 Wise sayings 69 Engine additive since 1954 70 Far from extravagant 71 Consider to be DOWN 1 Computer crash investigator, informally 2 Where Waikiki Beach is 3 Exceed, as one’s bounds 4 See 31-Down 5 “Ah, now that’s clear” 6 Coffee choice before bed 7 Cape Cod resort town 8 It’s thin on top of Everest 9 Hair goo 10 Serpent’s warning 11 Parodies 12 Route map start 13 “Finally!” 18 Blueprint detail 22 Package for a model plane 24 Shed door feature 26 River that passes through Lake Geneva 27 1970s TV’s “Welcome Back, ___” 28 Like Little Bo-Peep’s sheep 30 Apple eater in Genesis 31 With 4-Down, “To Kill a Mockingbird” writer 35 Campfire treat 36 Marlboro offering, informally 38 Wyatt of Dodge City 39 Decline 40 Totalitarian control 41 Use a Singer machine 42 Result of sunning 45 Gymwear 46 Choice morsel 47 Seriously embroiled 48 King: Sp. 50 Good lookers? 52 Wetlands plant 53 Business successes 57 The “S” of CBS: Abbr. 59 Military post 60 Grocery list component 62 Beaver’s project 63 Predictable reply at the altar 64 Pop 65 “And that proves it” PUZZLE BY JOHN LAMPKIN Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 7,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year). Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay. ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE 14 15 17 18 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 AB L ARE TWI NK L E BEATON SHA L EO I L UN F O L D T A L K T OME J AME SWA T T SK I N MA Y A S A Y S BUS T A AMEN SC I S SOR L I T T L E KNOWN F A C T I T T ALY N I N PHO KEEPS I T TOGETHER HEGOATS HEAT APSES B I O PERPS S AWN D ANKMEME S IDIOLECT ASASET ARML OCK S J OS I AH ACROSS 1 Ride 5 Trattoria offering 10 Effervescence 14 Natural pain reliever 15 West Indian sorcery 16 Dirt pie ingredient 17 Amorphous mass 18 5-Across unit 19 Days long gone 20 Inept sorts 22 One low on dough 24 Aziz of Netflix’s “Master of None” 25 Loft addition 26 Bush animal, for short 27 “Still, after all this time …” 31 Film speed letters 32 Cross to bear 34 Somewhat icy 35 What old records and happy-go-lucky people may do 36 Fore-and-aftrigged vessel 38 Stoppage 39 Geoffrey of fashion 40 “Sup?” 43 Meritorious 45 Picked up on 48 Subject of the 2008 biography “Woman of the House” 49 Annual event that includes snocross and ski superpipe 51 Number two 52 Rock band whose name is suggested by the first row of this puzzle 56 “The Burning Giraffe” artist 57 ___ school 58 Martial art whose name means, literally, “sword way” 59 Sophocles tragedy 60 Best, but barely 61 Language from which “kayak” comes 62 Paint swatch selection 63 Go-getter 64 Pours on the love 65 “The Garden of ___” (Oscar Wilde poem) DOWN 1 Apocalyptic event predicted in Norse mythology 2 Like a shampoo/ conditioner 3 Expands one’s view, in a way 4 Referee, in slang 5 Pink, for one 6 Sacred symbol of ancient Egypt 7 The Hudson’s Tappan ___ Bridge 8 Galifianakis of “The Hangover” 9 Leading 10 Place for an umbrella stand 11 Heavyweight champion who defeated “Bonecrusher” Smith 12 Gets closer and closer 13 Old-fashioned image projector 21 Fractions of a krona 23 Word 28 “Beowulf,” essentially 29 Eating with one’s elbows on the table, e.g. 30 Meeting places 33 “Peanuts” boy 35 Makes plans to tie the knot 37 Intense attraction, with “the” 39 Google alternative 41 Tiny brain? 42 Vamps 43 Odd duck 44 What “education is the best provision for,” per Aristotle 46 Key for “Spring” in Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” 47 Roosevelt predecessor? 48 Summoned 50 Yahtzee scoresheet row 53 Founder of Stoicism 54 Hardware bit 55 Comics character who once, surprisingly, solved a sudoku puzzle PUZZLE BY TRENTON CHARLSON Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 7,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year). Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay. ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 DE FST SPANG AH I A LOHA KA ZOO WED SCRUB I GO T ANAME HE L LA EVALOR I A T EN ENO OVENS HASAS I P CENA EP I C SEAHAG HAT ROCK ENV I S SAFE ESS CE LERY I NRE HEDY ONANDON A I KEN NOT SAY T R E A SMA P WOOD S LAYRUBBER DRO I D AQ I RA I S E D EWAR WI N ES TOP SONNY ME SSBOY ASKS TO 29  nd hosts? We want to show the force Brief swim demographic.