Mississippi Gov. Reeves announces that he will extend his COVID emergency order
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves announced Thursday that he will extend for 30 more days his State of Emergency order that addresses the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The extension will ease the process of marshalling additional resources for our response (that I described yesterday), allow our system of care to continue to transfer patients to hospitals where treatment is available, ensure expanded access to telemedicine, and will keep options open for use of the great men and women of the MS National Guard,” Reeves said in a statement on social media.
Reeves said that he will order no more lockdowns or mandates to battle the surge of COVID-19 cases in Mississippi, which has been fueled by the highly contagious delta variant.
“I did not make this decision without extensive consideration of all factors but I am convinced this action is the best path forward given the ever-changing environment we currently face,” the first-term governor said.
On Wednesday, Reeves provided a list of steps that the Mississippi State Department of Health is taking to address the crisis in state hospitals, including delaying elective surgeries and the addition of ICU capacity and beds at the Veteran Affairs facilities in Jackson and in Biloxi.
“We are not panicking,” Reeves said on Wednesday. “As we do with every emergency we are calmly making decisions best on the best available data to manage the situation and mitigate its impact on our people.”
This story was originally published August 12, 2021 at 12:32 PM.
