Does Harrison County meet Reeves’ standards for a mask mandate yet? Here’s the latest.
The message from Gov. Tate Reeves on Friday was Mississippi saw a 17% decrease in COVID-19 cases this week, while State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said he expects the statewide mask order eventually to return, given the escalating numbers.
This mixed message comes as Harrison County faces possibly being added to the nine counties placed under a mask mandate already in effect in Jackson County.
Reeves tweeted Friday the decrease statewide from last week to this week came “even as cases surge in most states. Keep up the good work! We can do this without going crazy on government interventions — people get it!”
Dobbs, at the weekly Mississippi State Medical Association’s Facebook Live Q&A, said he expects the governor to scale up the mask mandate as he did before, but that “whatever works to get as many people wearing masks as possible, is what we’re for.”
Dobbs said one thing that surprised him: “I didn’t realize how dependent businesses, churches and other organizations were leaning on the state mandate to enforce masking in their buildings.”
Reeves dropped the statewide mask mandate on Sept. 30 before ordering it to return three weeks later in the nine counties.
Dobbs also addressed what he called a myth — that the reason for the COVID-19 spike is because more testing is being done.
“We’re not testing any more people now than we were three weeks ago,” he said, and probably less.
“There’s just more cases,” he said.
“We can’t wish COVID away — but we can prevent it with very simple strategies,” he said.
Going into the holidays, people should refrain from large gatherings, he said.
“It’s parent-sponsored social events and sleepovers,” he said are responsible for the increase.
“We need to have zero of that,” he said. He suggested kids have backyard barbecues instead that are spaced out.
“We can still have fun and live. We just have to do it safely,” he said.
How’s COVID-19 spreading on the Coast?
According to the Office of Epidemiology, the jump in Harrison County cases seems to be community-wide transmission and not linked to a specific event or outbreak.
“The biggest thing we are seeing is that numbers are rapidly increasing among the younger age groups (20s to 40s) partially due to having greater access to convenient testing with or without symptoms,” said Sarah Duffey, media relations director at Singing River Health System in Jackson and Harrison counties.
Duffey said she wouldn’t say Cruisin’ The Coast Oct. 4-11 was the biggest contributor, “but it certainly did not do us any favors.” she said.
Mainly the rise is from people getting together with friends and families at gatherings like birthday parties and weddings, she said. The increase in cases also is from people letting their guard down by not washing hands regularly or wearing masks in public and crowded areas, she said, or when feeling sick around others and not isolating.
Not following protocols led to an all-time high of 50 positive patients in the three SRHS hospitals on Tuesday, said CEO Lee Bond.
He said 39 are hospitalized in regular medical surgical negative pressure rooms and 11 in intensive care units.
How close is Biloxi-Gulfport to mask mandate?
Harrison County slid in just under the benchmark to stay off the list of nine Mississippi counties where masks are required again to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.
“We’re hopeful the citizens of Harrison County will step up and help us reduce the number of cases and the overall spread,” Gov. Tate Reeves had said Monday, Oct. 19, when he announced the tighter restrictions, “and if not we will have to add Harrison County to this order.”
The benchmarks for getting on the list are more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents over a designated two-week period or more than 200 new cases per 100,000 residents.
Harrison County squeaked by with 197.5 cases per 100,000, according to Mississippi State Department of Health, just 2.5 cases below the requirement.
The average cases per day for the two weeks from Sept. 28 to Oct. 11 was 36 new cases a day in Harrison County. It’s averaging 64 cases a day since Monday, when Reeves warned Harrison County could be added to the list, with 318 new cases in five days.
Harrison County schools reported 685 students in quarantine last week.
Keeping score with COVID-19 cases
The health department reports a huge volume of data on its website.
Add the numbers from the daily reports for those two weeks, and Harrison County had 508 cases, which would have moved it into mask-mandate territory.
Yet the graphic for the counties of the highest new cases shows Harrison County had 411 new cases for the two weeks. Those numbers are based on the date of each positive test, not the date the numbers are reported to the state by the laboratories.
From the daily reports, the increase in cases in Harrison County from Sept. 28 to Oct. 11 was similar to the six counties of South Mississippi:
George — 84 new, up 11%
Hancock — 98 new, up 17%
Harrison — 508 new, up 13%
Jackson — 484 new, up 14%
Pearl River — 113 new, up 13%
Stone — 45 new, up 12%
Total — 1,332 new, up 13%
Sunday will complete the numbers for the next two-week period from Oct. 12-25.
It’s possible the governor could sign a new executive order Monday, as he did the previous week, adding more counties to the list where masks are required in public and hospitals must reserve 10% of capacity for coronavirus patients.
This story was originally published October 24, 2020 at 8:00 AM.
