Harrison County, 6 other counties added to coronavirus mask mandate, MS Gov. Reeves says

Gov. Tate Reeves announced Monday the addition of seven counties that will be added to the mask mandate., including one Coast county.

The counties that will be added to the nine already already under the order include:

• Harrison
• Madison
• Marshall
• Jones
• Carroll
• Leake
• Benton

“We can open schools. We can open businesses. We can wear masks. We can respect the severity of this virus,” Reeves said. But Mississippians have to work together.

There are now two Coast counties under the mandate as Harrison joins Jackson County that was in the most recent order from the governor on Oct. 19.

These counties met the benchmark that Reeves had previously announced for a mask mandate and more restrictions. Those thresholds are either:

• more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents over a designated two-week period
• more than 200 cases total over the designated two-week period (with more than 200 cases per 100,000 residents).

On the report released Monday for Oct. 5-18, Harrison County meets the second standard with 313 cases per 100,000 residents and 652 new total cases. A week ago, Harrison County was at 197.5 per 100,000 people.

Harrison County saw a single-day high for COVID-19 cases last week, and county schools reported 685 students in quarantine the second week of October. Casinos continued to require masks despite Harrison County not being under a mask mandate.

State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs reported during Monday’s press conference that 19% of ICU capacity remains available in the state.

Dobbs said there is currently a large number of people in the hospital for non-coronavirus reasons. There are six hospitals do not have ICU beds with only three beds available at large Jackson hospitals.

More rapid tests in MS

Mississippi is receiving 890,000 Abbott BinaxNOW rapid antigen tests from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As of Monday, over 398,000 of the rapid tests have been sent to Mississippi.

The rapid tests will be distributed at the discretion of Gov. Tate Reeves to support testing K-12 students, teachers, nursing home patients and staff, higher education, critical infrastructure, first responders and other priorities, according to HHS.

HHS said Mississippi’s plan includes “providing tests to sheltering operations in response to hurricanes” and “focusing on state Veterans Affairs homes not licensed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to administer tests.”

Mississippi officials “are currently testing in six locations and plan to eventually expand testing from once per week, to twice per week, four times per week, and ultimately daily testing in most counties by the week of Nov 9.”

This story was originally published October 26, 2020 at 2:55 PM.