More limits on bars, restaurants? What COVID-19 White House task force suggests for MS
While Mississippi has made progress against the novel coronavirus, the state had the fifth-highest rate of new COVID-19 cases in the country last week, according to a weekly report from the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
The report, published by ABC News, shows Mississippi has seen “ stability” in its number of new cases and a decrease in its test positivity rate over the last week.
But the task force recommends the state increase efforts to stop the spread of the disease from universities to outlying communities. If not, the progress made could go away.
“Mississippi has made progress and, to sustain the gains, should continue the strong mitigation efforts statewide and strengthen mitigation efforts in university towns to decrease spread from universities to the local community,” a portion of the report reads. “Consider a further reduction in hours and occupancy limits in bars and restaurants in university counties and anywhere university and college students gather if cases begin to rise.”
During the week of Aug. 29 through Sept. 4, Mississippi reported 4,649 new COVID-19 cases, an average of 156 cases per 100,000 people. That’s a decrease of 7.6% compared to the week before.
The state’s coronavirus test positivity rate last week was 8.8%, a decrease of .9% from the week before. During that week, Mississippi’s test positivity rate was the 16th highest in the nation.
Deaths decreased as well. Mississippi reported 145 deaths last week, a decrease of 26.8% from the week before.
More recent data suggests Mississippi’s cases are continuing to decline. As of Sept. 11, the state reported 3,206 coronavirus cases over the last seven days, the New York Times reports. The rate is 108 cases per 100,000 people. That’s the 14th-highest rate in the nation.
MS counties in the red zone
According to the White House report, seven of the state’s metro areas and 23 counties are in the coronavirus red zone, meaning more than 100 cases per 100,000 residents were reported and more than 10% of that area’s coronavirus tests came back positive.
Stone County was the only of the six southernmost counties to be in the red zone. Harrison, Jackson, Pearl River, Hancock and George counties were in the yellow zone, primarily driven by a decrease in their test positivity rates. The five counties reported a rate between 5 and 10%.
Over the last three weeks, Harrison County reported the third most COVID-19 cases in the state, and Jackson County was just behind in fourth. However, both are among the largest counties by population in the state.
“Overall, we’ve seen considerable progress over the past several weeks,” said State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs during a news conference Thursday.
Gov. Tate Reeve’s “Safe Return” executive order remains in effect until Sept. 14. When asked about easing future restrictions, Reeves said during Thursday’s news conference he’s pleased with the progress Mississippi residents have made. But coming out of the Labor Day holiday, it’s “not likely” that current mask restrictions would be reduced. Reeves added he doesn’t expect the current order to expire Monday.
“We will be able to loosen some restrictions out there, particularly in outdoor spaces,” he said. “At one time, we had the ability to do slightly ... larger crowds than the ten and twenty (people) if it were outdoors. I think that’s something that we’ll look at going forward.”
What does the White House Task Force recommend?
A majority of the White House task force coronavirus recommendations are aimed at the state’s colleges and universities. Gains have “reversed in other states due to university spread,” the report reads.
Mississippi Today reports that since classes began less than a month ago, there have been at least 896 students, faculty and staff members at the state’s eight public universities who have tested positive as of Sept. 9.
Dobbs told reporters Thursday that coronavirus measures on college campuses were “exceptional” but student activities off-campus could increase the spread of the virus.
“It’s the off-campus stuff,” he said. “It’s the parties. ...It’s really going to be one of our biggest challenges. ...It’s hard to overwhelm youthful spirit.”
The task force recommends increased testing and isolation on campus to prevent cases spreading from universities to outside communities.
“This includes detecting asymptomatic students and preventing the silent spread of disease through routine saliva testing on university research platforms. Ensure there are quick turnaround times for results and rapid isolation of cases and quarantine of contacts.
“Residential cases and contacts should not be sent home to isolate or quarantine,” the report reads.
Some of the task force’s other recommendations include:
Recruit college and university students to expand public health messaging and contact tracing capacity. Ensure protection of local communities by strict mask-wearing and social distancing when off-campus and around vulnerable individuals on campus.
Universities and colleges should work with various student leaders and campus media to support compliance with recommendations
Ask citizens and students to limit all social gatherings to 10 or fewer people.
Continue aggressive protection of those in long-term care facilities (LTCF) with continued testing
Increase testing capacity by increasing the budget and capacity of public health labs
Mississippi isn’t testing enough, experts say
A metric that isn’t improving in the state is the number of coronavirus tests being performed.
The task force report shows that Mississippi performed 21,384 coronavirus tests from Aug. 27-Sept. 2, a rate of roughly 719 tests per 100,000 people. That’s a drop of 20% from the week before.
Over the last two weeks, Mississippi has performed an average of 136 daily coronavirus tests per 100,000 people, which is 25% of the state’s testing goals.
Only North Dakota, South Dakota, Alabama and Iowa were further from the goal as of Sept. 11, according to reporting from the New York Times and estimates set by the Harvard Global Health Institute.
“The lack of testing is definitely not surfacing the number of cases that are actually out there. It’s a bit like looking through a microscope, and the microscope being really blurry,”said TJ Muehleman, creator of the COVID Mapping Project which tracks virus data from all 50 states. “You can tell that something is out there, but you can’t pinpoint exactly where.”
Too large a portion of Mississippi’s tests are coming back positive as well. The state’s two-week test positivity rate is 13%, the New York Times reports. That’s well above recommended public health thresholds.
The World Health Organization recommends 5% or less of tests come back positive. A rate above 5% may suggest that a state is not testing enough to properly track outbreaks or locate more mild cases of the virus.
During Thursday’s press conference, Dobbs said each county in the state will have free testing every week starting Monday. Testing is for those who have symptoms, those who have been exposed to the virus or those who are concerned that they have been exposed.
Kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers, staff, school administrators as well as workers at licensed child care facilities can be tested for free, even if they’ve had no symptoms or no close contact with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus.
“What you want to see is testing go up, because if testing per capita is going up, you’re surfacing more cases,” Muehleman said. “But most importantly, you’re encouraging them to isolate so they don’t spread the virus. ...You need to really broaden your reach.”
Free testing on the MS Coast
Free drive-thru testing available at county health department buildings from noon to 7 p.m.
- Monday, Sept. 14: George County
- Wednesday, Sept. 16: Hancock and Pearl River counties
- Friday, Sept. 18: Harrison, Jackson, Stone counties
This story was originally published September 12, 2020 at 8:00 AM.