Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves extends COVID-19 state of emergency order into November
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves announced Monday that he will extend for 30 more days the State of Emergency order to ensure resources are available in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This extension will continue to facilitate the state’s COVID-19 response including expanded access to telemedicine,” Reeves said in a statement Monday.
In September, Reeves pointed out the extension helps eases the process for the state to get additional resources for its COVID response and helps the state keep its options open for the use of the National Guard.
Reeves once again said he will not be issuing any lockdowns, mask mandates or other measures to battle the increase in cases due to the delta variant.
Reeves made the decision in coordination with State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs and Stephen McCraney, executive director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
Dobbs tweeted on Oct. 4 that the number of ICU patients are declining, but “Still substantial numbers of new admissions and more personal tragedy to come.”
The extension comes as the state has seen decreasing COVID cases in recent weeks, with vaccination rates up though Mississippi still ranks the lowest for vaccination rates in the nation.
Last month, President Joe Biden issued a mandate requiring employees of companies with 100 or more workers to be vaccinated or tested weekly for the coronavirus.
Biden’s order included a mandate for vaccinations or testing of federal employees, a measure Reeves and other Republican leaders are against.
The vaccine mandate has already prompted some employees to protest, including workers at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula.
