Mississippi health dept. recommends new COVID-19 rules as delta variant takes over
In new guidance Friday, the state health department signaled that Mississippi has entered another dangerous phase of the COVID-19 pandemic as the delta variant spreads.
State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs wrote on Twitter that the health department is making the following recommendations through July 26:
- All Mississippi residents older than 65 avoid all indoor mass gatherings, regardless of vaccination status
All Mississippi residents with chronic underlying medical conditions avoid all indoor mass gatherings, regardless of vaccination status
All Mississippians 12 years of age and older receive COVID vaccination
All unimmunized wear a mask when indoors in public settings
The move came as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have begun ticking up again in Mississippi, and as the contagious delta variant spreads across a state with the country’s lowest vaccination rate.
At a press briefing on Friday afternoon, Dobbs said he did not expect the state’s vaccination rates to increase much over the next few weeks.
“We’re going to remain vulnerable for a long time,” he said. “People are going to die needlessly.”
Dobbs said the state had seen outbreaks among youth summer programs and in nursing homes. The “confluence of risk” led the health department to make its new recommendations Friday.
“Our collective undervaccination has put us all at risk,” he said.
On Friday, Mississippi reported 416 new cases, the second day in a row the number of new cases was above 400 for the first time in months.
The numbers of people hospitalized with COVID and in the intensive care unit have both climbed since the beginning of July. On Thursday, 193 COVID patients were hospitalized, up from 113 on July 1 and 98 on June 18. Fifty-seven patients were in the ICU, up from 36 on July 1.
As of July 6, the state had recorded 137 cases of the delta variant, mostly in Hinds, Madison and Rankin Counties.
But state epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said at Friday’s press briefing that that figure told only a small part of the story. He showed a graphic indicating that by June 20, delta comprised 85% of all COVID variant cases that were sequenced in Mississippi.
“We have seen pretty much an entire takeover of the delta variant for transmission,” Dobbs said.
The highly contagious variant is now the dominant strain across the United States.
Studies have found the COVID-19 vaccines including Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are highly effective against delta. But it spreads rapidly among unvaccinated people. Most Mississippians are included in that group.
Mississippi’s vaccination woes
Only 37% of people in the state have gotten at least one dose of a vaccine and only 33.6% are fully vaccinated, compared to the national average of 55.4% and 47.9% respectively.
According to public health experts, at least 70% of the population needs to be immune to COVID-19, either through vaccination or previous infection, to reach herd immunity, when it becomes much more difficult for the virus to spread through a community.
On the Coast, vaccination rates are even lower than the state average. As of Friday, only 22% of residents in Hancock County, 29% in Harrison, and 27% in Jackson have been fully vaccinated.
On Wednesday, the six counties of south Mississippi reached a dark pandemic milestone: 1,000 people are now known to have died of COVID-19. That day, the state reported 11 new deaths due to the virus. Ten of the 11 people who died were unvaccinated.
Earlier on Friday, Dobbs tweeted his concern about the state of COVID-19 and vaccination rates in Mississippi.
“Our low vaccination rate is putting everyone at risk...” he wrote. “We are seeing numerous outbreaks at mass gatherings: camps, schools, faith-based, funerals, social gatherings.”
This story was originally published July 9, 2021 at 2:42 PM.
