Last week Governor Tate Reeves announced additional COVID-19 measures including extending mandatory face mask use for Scott and 60 other Mississippi counties as well as limiting the number of people allowed in social gatherings through the holidays in all 82 counties. The current executive order, which also limits the number of attendees at sporting events, is in effect until January 15.
Statewide, for social gatherings where social distancing is not possible, crowds are limited to a group of no more than 10 in a single space indoors. For outdoor social gatherings, no more than 50 people should be in close proximity.
Face coverings in schools are also required statewide whenever social distancing is not possible. They are also required when indoors and interacting with the public in the following counties:
Adams, Alcorn, Amite, Attala, Bolivar, Calhoun, Carroll, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Clarke, Clay, Coahoma, Copiah, Covington, De Soto, Forrest, Franklin, Grenada, Harrison, Hinds, Holmes, Itawamba, Jackson, Jefferson, Jefferson Davis, Jones, Kemper, Lafayette, Lamar, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Lee, Leflore, Lincoln, Lowndes, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Monroe, Montgomery, Neshoba, Noxubee, Oktibbeha, Panola, Pearl River, Perry, Pontotoc, Prentiss, Rankin, Scott, Simpson, Stone, Tate, Tippah, Tishomingo, Union, Washington, Webster, Winston, Yalobusha and Yazoo Counties.
Indoor sports venues for K-12 extracurricular events are limited to the lesser of four spectators per student participant or 250 ticketed spectators. Other indoor arenas will be limited to the lesser of ten percent seating capacity or 1,000 attendees.
Lackey Memorial Hospital CEO Sydney Sawyer, RN, said Tuesday that COVID conditions locally are slightly better this week but that residents still should not let down their guard.
“We’re still busier right now than we were in the summer,” Sawyer said, “but better than last week which was our worst. I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel, but people really do need to still be vigilant. We’re not there yet. We need to hang on a little while longer.”
With Intensive Care Units being reported full all over Mississippi, Sawyer said that he has not had to transfer any COVID patients to larger facilities in a couple of weeks but felt comfortable that if he needed to the state could help find an ICU bed somewhere.
“We’ve got 10 in the hospital that are pretty sick. We haven’t had to transfer anyone in the last couple of weeks, but I think we could if we have too,” he said. “The state is doing a pretty good job of knowing where some beds are available. This is great for us, if we run into a wall trying to find a bed the state can help.
“If they are going to need a ventilator they are going to be too sick for us,” he added. “The best thing is to get them to Jackson where they have those things. Sometimes we can sometimes we can’t.”
The CEO added that he expected delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine for front line workers at Lackey next Tuesday.
“I’m supposed to have 100 doses next Tuesday. About 98 are spoken for already. Within a few days we should be able to vaccinate all of our employees,” he said. “I’m going to be first in line at my phase, but obviously those working on the COVID hall will be first.”
Sawyer also said that treatments now available for coronavirus are better and help to keep people out of the ICU and even at home.
“We have some drugs that seem like they are working now. There are two separate drugs we can give you now that seem to help keeping people out of the hospital,” he said. “The treatments as far as oxygen therapy are also better which is great.”
For those feeling sick, or that suspect they may have the virus, Saywer said they should not wait to see a doctor.
“Most of the people we’ve had to transfer out of the hospital came to us pretty late in their disease,” he said. “If you realize you are sick, make sure your doctor knows you are sick because there are some opportunities for some medications and things now that we didn’t have even a month ago. We’ve got the same drugs here that everyone else has that are sent to us by the state.”
As of Tuesday’s daily update from the Mississippi Department of Health the state was recording 2,205 new positive cases of COVID-19 and 48 additional deaths for that day. Those numbers bring the total number of positive cases of coronavirus in Mississippi since the pandemic began in March to 183,300 with 4,252 deaths. There have been 148,466 presumed recoveries.
As of Tuesday, Scott County was reporting a total of 1,851 positive cases of COVID-19 since March with 33 deaths. That is an increase of 136 cases in the last seven days and three additional deaths.
