Reeves is expected to ease coronavirus restrictions. What will it look like in MS?
Gov. Tate Reeves likes to compare easing new coronavirus restrictions to a light switch.
As in, he won’t be flipping on a light switch Friday, when he is expected to announce easing of an April 1 executive order that requires Mississippians to shelter in place and closed most businesses.
Instead, he said, reopening will work like a dimmer switch, with a gradual easing of restrictions.
What will this look like? Reeves said at his weekday news conference Thursday that Mississippians must:
▪ Wear masks
▪ Continue social distancing, or staying 6 feet apart, when they venture out, including to church.
▪ Avoid crowds of more than 10.
▪ Accept that some business sectors will reopen sooner than others.
▪ Realize restrictions could be tighter in counties with higher COVID-19 case numbers.
“Now is not the time for us to take a victory lap,” Reeves said. “Now is the time for us to be even more focused.”
“ . . . . You’re going to see us loosen some restrictions, but we’re not going to reduce all restrictions, quite the contrary.”
One of the main reasons? Mississippi and most other states are still doing too little testing to know the extent of new coronavirus spread, which would allow quarantine of sick individuals, and a return to work and public life for others.
Mississippi ranks 12th in testing out of all 50 states, with official daily numbers for each state compiled by the COVID Mapping Project. But the state is still far from the 152 tests a day per 100,000 people needed to safely reopen, according to Harvard Global Health Institute research.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington developed reopening projections after receiving requests from hospitals and state governments concerned about overwhelming the healthcare system with COVID-19 cases.
Their estimates show Mississippi could safely reopen only after May 25 to May 31 and only with adequate testing, contact tracing and isolation of those who are sick, and by continuing to limit the size of groups.
State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs said during one of Reeves’ news conferences this week that the health department has 180 employees engaged in contact tracing.
Dobbs said the state is adding contact tracers as it can. But they face a Herculean task in a state reporting more than 200 new cases of COVID-19 a day each day this week with the exception of Wednesday, when only 178 new cases were reported.
Four or five people generally need three days to complete one full contact trace, Andy Slavitt, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the Obama administration, told Propublica nonprofit news for a recent article.
The MSDH had endured 10 years of budget cuts and staff reductions before the new coronavirus pandemic hit. Dobbs said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will possibly be sending contact tracing reinforcements to Mississippi and other states.
But the health department has expanded testing capacity without federal help, instead relying on scientists and researchers at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the University of Southern Mississippi, Reeves said.
Reeves also said restrictions might remain tighter in some counties than they do in others. The New York Times has produced a map, also based on official state numbers, that shows hard-hit counties nationwide.
Mississippi’s hot spots, where COVID-19 cases are doubling in seven days or less, are Lafayette, Prentiss, Itawamba, Monroe and Grenada counties in North Mississippi; Attala, Leake, Neshoba and Newton counties in East Central Mississippi; Simpson, Lawrence and Covington counties in Central Mississippi and Warren County in West Central Mississippi.
No South Mississippi counties are experiencing rapid COVID-19 spread.
On April 22, the MSDH reported a total of 5,153 COVID-19 cases statewide and 201 deaths.
Dobbs, sitting by Reeves’ side at the daily news conferences streamed live on Facebook, assured Mississippians that Reeves is making reopening decisions based on advice from his health experts, although the governor was initially slow to order business closings and sheltering in place.
“Every step along the way, every decision has been made with painstaking detail using the data available to us to make a decision,” Dobbs said.
McClatchy regional staff writer Nick Wooten contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 24, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
