MS continues to see better stats: COVID-19 Weekly summary 28SEP2020

STATEWIDE MISSISSIPPI

• Mississippi’s 3493 new COVID-19 cases was a 3.7% increase, compared to last week’s 3.9%.
• There were 111 new deaths, a 4% increase. This is up slightly from last week’s 3.8% (104 deaths).
• Totals as of 9-28 reporting were 97,049 cases and 2921 deaths since reporting began on March 11, 2020.  Statewide, cases have risen slightly for the past two weeks, after having declined for 3 weeks prior to that.
• Mississippi’s rate of 994* deaths per million of population was a 5% increase, the highest rate of increase in several weeks. Mississippi remains the 7th most lethal state behind  LA, NY, NJ, MA, CT,  and RI.
• With a current rate of 32,807* total COVID-19 cases per million, Mississippi has now surpassed Florida to become the second most infectious state behind Louisiana.
• Statewide Hospitalized Patients: (as of 9-27-20)
  • There were an average of 482 COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization, compared to 512 last week.
  • The daily average of COVID-19 patients requiring ICU dropped for a 7th week, From 170 to 136, a substantial drop.
  • Patients requiring ventilators dropped for the 7th week to an average 72.
  • STATEWIDE Long Term Care (LTC) facilities:
    • As of 9-28, 125 LTC facilities statewide reporting active coronavirus outbreaks.
    • Total LTC New cases rose by 175, compared to 171 last week. LTC facilities accounted for 5% (up from 4.8%) of all new cases (175 of 3493 cases). This is a slight upward turn after last weeks drop. This statistic is fluctuating.
    • The percentage of new statewide deaths attributable to LTC was sharply down again this week, at 30.6% (34 of 111) compared to last week’s 36.5%. This makes two weeks of decline in the percent of deaths attributable to LTC.

NORTHEAST MISSISSIPPI (NEMS):

• As of September 27th, Northeast Mississippi had 395 new COVID-19 cases, for a total of 15,488 cases, an increase of 4.6%. This is down from last week’s 5.5%. The decline returns the NEMS to an 8 week declining trend that went on hold last week.
• This is the 8th week of downward percentages.  Northeast Mississippi is still having a slightly higher percentage of new cases than statewide, which rose only 3.7%.
• NEMS’s total deaths reached 395, having increased by 13 again this week.  There were 5 deaths in Long term care and 8 in the general population This is the third week in a row where general population deaths surpassed those in LTC. The 13 new deaths represents a slight percentage decline from last week. This is the second week of decline after two weeks of “holding.”
•  NEMS Long Term Care (LTC) facilities:
  • On Sept 28th, 13 NEMS counties had active outbreaks in residents in 24 LTC facilities. This is 6 less active outbreaks than last week.
  • Northeast MS’s 5 new deaths in LTC facilities compares to 2 last week.  Total deaths in all NEMS facilities are now 196.
  • NEMS’s overall death rate was below the state average for the 2nd straight week.
  • Ten of 15 counties surpassed the state’s 3.7% average increase rate of NEW cases, but the differences were smaller. As a result, the NEMS average of 4.6% is higher than the statewide average.
    • Alcorn was highest with a 6.7% increase.
    • Prentiss had a 6.1% increase.
    • Only Calhoun, Clay,  Marshall and Union were below the state average.
    • Pontotoc matched the state at 3.7%
    • The remainder of the NEMS counties ranged between 4.2% to 6.1%, compared to the state’s 3.7%.

• Again this week, LTC facilities in northeast MS accounted for 3.1% of the area’s new cases. LTC accounted for 38.5% of new deaths, up from last week.
  • Benton and Calhoun counties have no current active outbreaks
  • Benton and Tippah counties still have had no LTC facility residents’ deaths attributed to COVID-19.

The Take-Away For This Week

Overall, Mississippi is continuing its downward trend for new cases. Deaths bumped upward this week, as did new cases.  Hospital statistics continue to hospitalization trends. Hospitalized patients, patients requiring ICU care and patients on ventilators are all continuing downward.

However, Mississippi is the second most infectious state,  and we have seen slight upticks in cases for two weeks. Be careful out there.

Northeast Mississippi (NEMS) statistics are improved quite a bit over several weeks ago. NEMS continues to outpace statewide averages, but the differences are narrowing substantially.

No vaccine is expected for at least several months, possibly mid summer 2021.

The rate of increase is definitely slowing statewide, though there are pockets of problems which are being addressed.

The current Executive Order mandating masks and other precautions is set to expire tomorrow. The Governor’s office branded as “Fake” an Executive making the rounds of social media “abolishing” the mask mandate. The Governor will likely address this issue tomorrow, since the current order expires on 9-30.

Winter is approaching. It is time to get your influenza vaccine.

Vulnerable people in northeast Mississippi should continue extra precautions, as increased cases and deaths are largely due to issues of behavior.  Check your county statistics and know how they stand. Daily reports are available by county from the MSDH.

As always, if you are vulnerable, continue to take care of yourself in any way you see fit. If you are able, give assistance to someone who needs it.

*statistics from WorldOMeter as of day of posting

Individual weekly stats for NEMS counties: NEMiss.news Covid 19 weekly 9-28-2020

MSDH COVID statistics by county: 

School reports by county: https://msdh.ms.gov/msdhsite/_static/resources/10574.pdf

MS Executive Orders: