Mississippi’s COVID-19 cases dip Monday. ‘I wouldn’t be too comfortable,’ Dobbs says.
New COVID-19 cases dipped below 700 in Mississippi for the first time in two weeks with 653 reported Monday by the state health department.
The state also reported six deaths, the smallest single-day total in a week, but State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs cautioned against accepting the lower numbers as reason to believe things will begin trending in the right direction.
“I wouldn’t be too comfortable with 600 new cases,” Dobbs said Monday. “Our numbers frequently drop off over the weekend. I wouldn’t take this as an indication of improvement.”
Jackson County reported the lone death in South Mississippi on Monday, and the state health department now lists 27 there for the year.
There were 45 new cases reported for the state’s southernmost six counties on Monday, with Jackson and Harrison counties each listing 14.
The state’s hospitalization numbers stabilized somewhat after seeing a marked increase over the two prior weeks. After the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients reached an all-time high of 975 on July 23, and that number stood at 949 as of Sunday, according to stats released on Monday.
There were another 230 patients hospitalized with suspected cases of the coronavirus.
The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care hit a new high on Saturday at 311 before slightly dipping to 304 on Sunday.
Patients on ventilators also reached a high mark on Saturday at 168. As of Sunday, the total was 166.
As of July 26, there are 35,071 presumed recoveries from COVID-19 in the state.
There have been 52,957 new cases and 1,501 deaths in Mississippi this year.
Total coronavirus cases on the Coast:
George — 247 (4 new)
Hancock — 277 (8 new)
Harrison — 1,824 (14 new)
Jackson — 1,596 (14 new)
Pearl River — 431 (4 new)
Stone — 129 (1 new)
