One of every 5 coronavirus deaths in the state is in South Mississippi counties
The number of new coronavirus cases and deaths reported by the State Department of Health is still rising, and the data shows South Mississippi is disproportionately impacted.
Mississippi has 82 counties. The six southern counties are 7% of the state.
Yet George, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Pearl River and Stone counties have 14% of the coronavirus cases. Tuesday’s report shows 3,087 total cases for the state; 441 for South Mississippi.
Many people who live in Mississippi work in New Orleans, which has been a hot spot of coronavirus cases, and Mobile, which also has been hard-hit.
George and Stone counties don’t have any reported deaths from coronavirus. The state has 111 deaths attributed to the coronavirus.
Hancock, Harrison, Jackson and Pearl River together have 23 deaths. That is 21% of all deaths in the state in four South Mississippi counties.
If it were proportional, each county in the state would have 1.4 deaths. Hancock, Harrison and Jackson each have 5 deaths as of Tuesday and Pearl River 8, the second highest in the state after 11 in Lauderdale County.
For those looking for positive news in the numbers, the rate of increase has slowed in South Mississippi. It took about 3-4 days for cases to double at the middle of March, 7 days in early April and about 12 days since then.
Additional deaths in South Mississippi also have slowed this month, dropping from 2 or 3 a day since April 4, to only 2 in the last three days.
