MS enters a 5th wave of COVID as omicron spreads, cases skyrocket by 80% in a week
Mississippi has entered its fifth wave of COVID-19, the Mississippi State Department of Health announced Tuesday, following rapidly increasing new cases, hospitalizations and outbreaks over the past week.
The omicron variant now accounts for 13% of COVID cases in the state, the health department said in a letter to statewide health care providers.
From Dec. 21-27, Mississippi saw an 80% jump in new coronavirus cases and 161 more hospitalizations when compared to the previous week, MSDH said.
“All these indicators point to very rapid growth of COVID-19 infection and transmission and indicate that we have now entered our 5th wave of COVID-19 in the state,” the letter reads.
MSDH said that a growing number of the newly emerging omicron variant — around 50% more infectious than the delta strain — are being identified through virologic surveillance in the state.
For the week ending on Christmas, the omicron variant accounted for 13% of all samples sequenced in the state, MSDH wrote, up from 8% in the previous week.
“This likely represents an underestimate of the impact of Omicron on the state, with samples collected in the last two weeks still pending sequencing…we anticipate this variant will become the predominant strain in Mississippi in the coming days to weeks.”
MSDH on Tuesday reported 3,594 more cases and 19 deaths from COVID in Mississippi, another sharp spike in post-holiday cases. South Mississippi is recording its highest numbers since late October when the delta variant ravaged the state.
