Union County Library staffer has COVID-19. Library closed again.

All other library employees were to be tested on Wednesday to determine if any of them have yet acquired COVID-19. Health department guidelines will require that the other employees be quarantined for two weeks.

The library had started providing curbside service when the state government prematurely “re-opened” the state in May.

Epidemiologists — including Mississippi’s own health department — had said states should not reopen until the number of coronavirus cases had been in decline for at least two weeks. Coronavirus cases in Mississippi were, in fact, still on the increase when Governor Tater Reeves declared the state open with limited guidance (masks and unenforceable “social distancing”) in May.

Union County Library sources speculated that the staffer with coronavirus might have acquired it during an out of town trip.

Free Wi-Fi is still available 24 hours a day and the book drop is available for returns. Fines are being suspended while the library is closed.

Record high numbers of new coronavirus cases in Mississippi have been reported just this week. Six-hundred-eleven new cases were reported Tuesday. Another 526 new cases were reported today.

Only 11 other U.S. states have higher average numbers of coronavirus deaths per population than Mississippi. As of today, Mississippi has had 340 COVID-19 deaths per million population. Neighboring Arkansas has had 79 deaths per million cases. Tennessee has had 81 deaths per million. Alabama has had 182 deaths per million. Louisiana, which was a COVID-19 “Hotspot” earlier this year, has had 680 deaths per million population.

Union County Emergency Management Director, Curt Clayton, told NEMiss.News about 3:15 this afternoon that he and others had just completed a decontamination treatment of the library’s interior.

Library reopens for curb service: http://newalbanyunionco.com/county-library-reopens-tuesday/

Follow this link for further information about the sharp rise in COVID-19 in Mississippi.