Mississippi hits 300,000 COVID-19 cases. Doctors warn against early return to normal
More than 300,000 Mississippians have now been infected with COVID-19, according to the state health department’s latest update Saturday morning.
The department announced 690 new cases, bringing the total since the pandemic began to 300,577.
Of the new cases, 128 were reported in the southernmost six counties of the state.
The state also reported 13 new deaths, including one in Hancock County, which was identified from death certificate reports between Jan. 4 and March 5.
Mississippi surpassed 200,000 cases on Dec. 23, 2020. It hit 100,000 cases on Oct. 3.
Cases, hospitalizations and deaths in Mississippi have fallen since the post-holiday surge peaked in mid-January. Vaccination distribution has also been accelerating.
State health officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs tweeted Friday that more than half of Mississippians over age 50 have now received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose.
Mississippi reported its first case of the fast-spreading B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant, also called the U.K. variant, on Feb. 15. According to CDC data updated March 11, the state has reported just one such case, and no cases of other variant strains.
New cases plateauing
One major reason for optimism about the next few months, experts say, is that the vaccines appear to offer strong protection against the U.K. variant. Pfizer and Moderna offer somewhat less protection from the South African variant, but early results show they still protect against serious illness and hospitalization from that strain.
Last week, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor to the president and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told an interviewer that the daily case increase in the U.S. had plateaued at 60,000 to 70,000 over the previous 10 days.
“The message we’re saying is that we do want to come back carefully and slowly about pulling back on mitigation methods, but don’t turn it... on and off because it really would be risky to have yet again, another surge,” he said.
Mississippi’s mask mandate expired on March 3, as Gov. Tate Reeves said it was time to “get out of the business of telling people what they can and cannot do.”
After falling into the 300s earlier in March, the seven-day average of new cases has ticked up for the last week, to 465 on Saturday.
Fauci said in the interview last week that along with vaccinations, social distancing and mask-wearing in public are important to keep new case numbers falling.
Vaccinations continuing
Dobbs and state epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers echoed that point on Friday, when they said holding high school proms is a bad idea this year.
“If we have proms,” Byers said, “we’re going to see transmission.”
Byers and Dobbs said they expect all Mississippians will be officially eligible for a vaccine in April, ahead of the May 1 target set by the Biden administration. Currently, people over 50 and people with certain health conditions are eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine in Mississippi.
Here are the cases reported by county:
- George: 2,337 (2 new)
- Hancock: 3,585 (8 new)
- Harrison: 17,098 (55 new)
- Jackson: 12,857 (32 new)
- Pearl River: 4,276 (24 new)
- Stone: 1,749 (7 new)
