Reeves adds 19 MS counties to COVID-19 mask mandate, including one in South Mississippi
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves stopped short of a statewide mask mandate as COVID-19 cases surge, but on Tuesday added 19 counties to existing orders, which brings the total to 41 of the state’s 82 counties now under mask mandates.
In South Mississippi, Stone County was added, joining Harrison and Jackson counties under mask mandates because of rapid COVID-19 spread.
He said at a news conference Tuesday — the first in at least two weeks on the coronavirus — that cases have been spreading slowly but consistently.
“However, now it’s clear that we are in the middle of our second surge,” Reeves said.
Counties Reeves added to the mask mandate are Alcorn, Attala, Bolivar, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Jefferson Davis, Jones, Lafayette, Lawrence, Lincoln, Lowndes, Neshoba, Panola, Perry, Prentiss, Stone, Tippah, Tishomingo and Union.
He said hospitalizations are trending upward. They peaked in August at 1,250 and are at 1,040 today, with ventilator use also on the rise. He said about 15% of people infected with COVID-19 will wind up in the hospital.
Hospitalizations are expected to continue their rise over the next two weeks, even if cases decline, because of the lag between infection and serious illness, Reeves said.
Reeves said he thinks a county-by-county approach is the most effective way to use mask mandates, but said another statewide mandate is still possible.
He also urged Mississippians to avoid social gatherings over Thanksgiving because of the high infection rate and the fact that those with COVID-19 aren’t always experiencing symptoms.
He said gatherings over Halloween definitely led to an increase in cases.
“This is a critical time,” Reeves said. “Please be extra cautious and please look out for your loved ones.
“There is much more COVID-19 around us.”
MS rise in COVID-19 cases
New COVID-19 cases climbed consistently above 1,000 daily in mid-July and stayed that way until around Aug. 8, three days after Reeves issued a statewide mask mandate. The seven-day average of new cases had dipped to 516.71 a day when Reeves ended the mandate Sept. 30, a Sun Herald record of MSDH case numbers shows.
The number of new cases rose consistently again after the statewide mandate expired, with a seven-day average of cases above 1,000 a day since Nov. 13. Reeves reinstituted county-by-county mask mandates Oct. 21 that were before Tuesday’s announcement in force in 22 of the state’s hardest hit counties, including Harrison and Jackson in South Mississippi.
Today, the MSDH reports a total of 144,544 cases of COVID-19 and 3,729 deaths. Mississippi saw its highest count Saturday, when 1,972 new cases were reported.
LouAnn Woodard, dean of the School of Medicine at the state’s largest hospital, University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, on Monday called for Reeves to bring back the statewide mask mandate.
“With the governor being the highest level of state official, I think that sends a big signal for that position to say, ‘We are at a critical point, people. We need to have a statewide mask mandate,’ “ Woodard was quoted as saying by online news outlet Mississippi Today. “That sense of urgency is rapidly becoming much more intense and powerful. And what we have been doing hasn’t turned us around.”
Woodard and three other physicians, including the executive director of the Mississippi State Medical Association, Dr. Claude Brunson, sent a letter to Reeves on Tuesday that urged him to reinstitute the statewide mask mandate.
The letter said, in part: “Thanksgiving is this week and we know that our cases and hospitalizations will continue to rise throughout the holiday season. A statewide mask mandate is vital to maintain the integrity of our healthcare system, and we ask that you issue one by executive order through the end of the year.”
Counties under mask mandate
Reeves said that he has been studying COVID-19 numbers for states nationwide and doesn’t believe a statewide mask mandate is needed.
“There is no one silver bullet,” Reeves said. “There is no one thing we can do as a state. There is no one thing that I as a leader, or we as Mississippians, can do to make this thing go away. This is a highly contagious virus.”
And, he added, it can be particularly deadly for those over 65, which is why he and public-health officials are worried about multi-generational gatherings over the holidays.
State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said groups of people indoors are driving transmission. “We’re not going to wear masks while eating,” he said. “We’re not going to wear masks around our families.”
Mississippi ranks 33rd among states for COVID-19 cases per 100,000, Reeves said, even though Mississippi has the sixth least restrictive measures of all 50 states. He said 40 states currently have mask mandates.
He listed states with mask mandates in force since July that rank higher in terms of caseloads per 100,000. The states he named and their ranks:
▪ Louisiana, 21
▪ Arkansas, 26
▪ Kentucy, 24
▪ Indiana, 11
▪ Kansas, 12.
Nonetheless, Reeves did add the 19 counties to the mandate and left mandates in place in four counties that have dipped below the high-spread threshold.
Other Mississippi counties already under the mask mandate are Benton, Carroll, Covington, DeSoto, Forrest, Harrison, Hinds, Humphreys, Itawamba, Jackson, Lamar, Lauderdale, Leflore, Lee, Madison, Marshall, Montgomery, Pontotoc, Rankin, Tate, Winston and Yalobusha.
This story was originally published November 24, 2020 at 3:11 PM.
