COVID-19 cases climb in MS: ‘Our equilibrium is unraveling,’ top health expert says
One week after Gov. Tate Reeves lifted a statewide mask mandate, State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs has taken a look at rising COVID-19 numbers and said in a Wednesday morning tweet: “Our equllibrium is unraveling.”
Reeves imposed a statewide mask mandate Aug. 4, later than many states, and was the first governor in the country to end the mandate with his announcement Sept. 30. A mask mandate still applies to schools.
Mississippi is one of 23 states where cases are high and climbing, the New York Times reports from a nationwide database of state-reported COVID-19 statistics.
Reeves told The Hill in a recent interview that he would consider future executive orders to curtail COVID-19 spread if the situation warrants.
“If the question that anybody in the press or otherwise begins ‘are you concerned about…,’ the answer is yes,” a quote from Reeves in The Hill said. “And if the question begins with ‘would you consider in the future…,’ the answer is definitely yes. That’s just because I think this is a dynamic and fluid situation, one in which you’ve got to be willing to adjust as the data leads you to make decisions,” he said.
On Tuesday, new COVID-19 cases in Mississippi topped 900 for the first time since Aug. 22, when that state had 906. Dobbs said in his tweet that some of Tuesday’s new cases, which came in at 975, were from late reporting. Mississippi hasn’t topped Tuesday’s number since Aug. 19, when 1,348 new cases were reported.
MS COVID-19 hospitalizations are up
Hospitalizations are climbing as well, Dobbs noted. The State Health Department reported Tuesday that 588 patients were hospitallzed with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases. A large part of the reasoning for a mask mandate, Reeves has said, is to avoid overwhelming hospitals.
In his tweet, Dobbs added that the state has more than 300 new COVID-19 cases in K-12 schools, which are still under a mask mandate, and more than about 6,000 students under quarantine.
“We know what it takes and we will do it,” Dobbs concluded.
Dobbs was referring to his oft-repeated public health advice: Wear a mask in public, social distance, wash your hands and avoid crowds.
Nationwide, Mississippi trails only Louisiana in the number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population. The state was sixth in number of deaths, with 102 per 100,000, The New York Times database shows.
The state as of Tuesday had a total of 101,678 COVID-19 cases and 3,027 deaths.
