Live updates April 22: Coast sees one new death, 14 more coronavirus cases

Six weeks since the first coronavirus death was reported in Mississippi, the state Health Department reports 178 new cases and 10 deaths statewide.

The report shows 193 people across the state have died of the coronavirus since the first death was reported on March 11.

One of those new deaths was reported in Harrison County, bringing the total in the six counties of South Mississippi to 28 deaths. Pearl River County has 10 deaths, Jackson and Harrison counties 6, Hancock 5 and George 1. There are no coronavirus deaths in Stone County.

New cases reported today in the state was the third day of declines, dropping from 300 new cases Sunday to 239 Monday, 204 on Tuesday and 178 Wednesday. The report said 384 Mississippians are hospitalized for COVID-19.

In South Mississippi, there were 14 new cases, up from 10 on Tuesday, and 592 total. Sixty of those cases were in long term care facilities.

Total cases in South Mississippi counties are:

George — 10 (0 new)

Hancock — 54 (1 new)

Harrison — 150 (1 less than reported Tuesday)

Jackson — 221 (10 new)

Pearl River — 136 (2 new)

Stone — 21 (2 new)

3:52 p.m.

Gov. Tate Reeves again said Wednesday that he was prepared to gradually loosen some of the guidelines under his shelter-in-place order, including those for the business community.

“There’s no such thing as an nonessential business for those who rely on them to help provide food, supplies and shelter for every single one of their employees,” Reeves said during a press conference.

“We cannot eliminate layoffs or economic problems. People are changing behavior on their own and that is going to continue to make it difficult for many small business. We can, however, do everything in our power to limit those instances where an order from the government prevents a Mississippian from providing for themselves. We’re looking to get out that situation in a safe and responsible way.”

Reeves indicated that industries where social distancing is possible will be among the first allowed to reopen. He also said that elective surgeries may be allowed soon.

Part of the reason for Reeves’ decision to push toward reopening the state’s economy is that the pandemic is supposed to be hitting its peak in Mississippi, but the state’s health care system is far from being overwhelmed at this point.

“The curve is flattening and see more evidence of that every day. “Two weeks ago, we had 128 cases on ventilators. Today, we have less than 80. We’re seeing that same trend for patients in ICU. This is during a period when national experts predicted we would be at our peak. The numbers will continue to fluctuate, but the good news is that they are far lower than anyone originally expected. Some national experts thought we would need 4,000 hospital beds this week. Instead, we are using less than 400. That is because your efforts are having an incredible impact. What you are doing as Mississippians to protect yourselves and neighbors is making a difference. In our state, we’re not seeing a widespread outbreak. We’re fighting smaller localized battles. It’s a different challenge.”

3:30 p.m.

Merit Health Biloxi reports 9 positive coronavirus cases and 7 pending out of 195 tested.

CEO Tom McDougal said elective outpatient surgeries are scheduled to resume Monday, pending any new recommendations from Gov. Tate Reeves. New COVID-19 screening will be required for all surgical cases going forward. If a patient tests positive on the lab test, the surgery will be delayed unless it is emergency surgery.

Physician clinics reopened part-time Wednesday for patient visits in office and through tele-medicine and are scheduled to be resume normal operations on April 29.

Noon

The Centers for Disease Control reported Wednesday 26,490 new cases and 2,817 additional deaths, compared to 29,468 cases and 2,575 more deaths on Tuesday.

Totals for the U.S. are 802,583 cases and 44,575 deaths.

10:30 a.m.

Gautier City Council on Tuesday voted to amend its April 1 order and loosen the restrictions on the number of customers allowed inside local stores at one time.

Businesses with 100,000 square feet or larger now can have 100 customers in the store at a time. This brings Lowe’s more in line with D’Iberville regulations, which allow 98 customers in the Lowe’s store there. Gulfport also reduced the number of customers to 5% of total occupancy normally allowed. Biloxi Council chose not to limit the number of customers at Home Depot.

The new limits in Gautier are 75 customers for stores between 25,000 and 99,999 square feet, 50 customers for stores between 14,000 and 24,999 square feet, and 20 customers in stores under 14,000 square feet.

Non-essential businesses shall follow the executive orders of Gov. Tate Reeves and are permitted to operate if and when the governor removes or amends those orders.

10:15 a.m.

Due to inclement weather expected on Thursday, the temporary Memorial Physician Clinic Drive-Up COVID-19 Screening and Testing site at the Lyman Community Center on U.S. 49 in Gulfport has been rescheduled. It now will be held Saturday from 9 a.m.–3 p.m.

Other drive-up testing for those who have symptoms of coronavirus are from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on these dates:

• Friday, April, April 24 — West Harrison Civic Center, 4670 Espy Ave., Long Beach
• Tuesday, April 28 — Woolmarket Civic Center, 16320 Old Woolmarket Road, Biloxi

7 a.m.

After having no new cases the previous day, Singing River Health System had 9 positive results yesterday. None of those who tested positive had to be hospitalized.

CEO Lee Bond reported 31 people have recovered and been able to go home and 18 remain hospitalized, 3 of whom are in the intensive care unit.

Tuesday’s highlights:

▪ For the fourth straight day on Tuesday there were no new COVID-19 deaths reported in South Mississippi, and also on Tuesday 10 new cases were reported. Mississippi State Department of Health reported 204 new cases in the state and 14 additional deaths.

▪ Gov. Tate Reeves said Tuesday that he plans to take his time as he reboots the state’s economy in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our reopening strategy will be continuous, but slow,” he said during a press conference. “We’ll be opening up business sectors and regions of the state based on data and the advice of public health experts. We will have rules that people will continue to follow. We will ease into it. We will not rush into it, but understand that we have to start heading in that direction. We have to do something.”

▪ Mississippians who are self-employed and were previously unable to receive unemployment benefits can now apply for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the Mississippi Department of Employment Security announced on Tuesday.

Self-employed people, gig economy workers, independent contracts, people employed by a church or religious organization and employees of nonprofit organizations are among those who may now be eligible to receive unemployment benefits. Also, those who previously had insufficient funds to file an unemployment claim may be eligible.

▪ Interactive data from the Centers for Disease Control showed Tuesday that Mississippi is 25th for number of coronavirus cases in the country and 25th for states with new cases in the last week. In comparison New York state has the most cases at 238,138 with 1,219 cases per 100,000 people and 17,027 deaths. Mississippi is in the middle at 4,512 cases with 151 cases per 100,000 and 169 deaths.

This story was originally published April 22, 2020 at 1:07 PM.