COVID-19 pandemic in Mississippi

This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (June 2021)

COVID-19 pandemic in Mississippi
Map of the outbreak in Mississippi by confirmed new infections per 100,000 people over 14 days; (click to see date updated)   1,000+   500–1,000   200–500   100–200   50–100   20–50   10–20   0–10   No confirmed new cases or no/bad data
Map of the outbreak in Mississippi by confirmed total infections per 100,000 people (click on map for date of update)   10,000+   3,000–10,000   1,000–3,000   300–1,000   100–300   30–100   0–30   No confirmed infected or no data
Disease	COVID-19
Virus strain	SARS-CoV-2
Location	Mississippi, U.S
First outbreak	Wuhan, Hubei, China
Index case	Forrest County
Arrival date	March 12, 2020[1]
Confirmed cases	98,886
Active cases	9,149
Hospitalized cases	531 (current) 5,975 (cumulative)
Critical cases	131 (current)
Ventilator cases	68 (current)
Recovered	89,737
Deaths	2,979
Government website
Mississippi State Department of Health

The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the U.S. state of Mississippi in March 2020.

As of December 30, 2020, Mississippi has administered 17,410 COVID-19 vaccine doses, equivalent to 0.58% of the population.^[2]

Timeline[]

The Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) confirmed their first case in the state on March 12, 2020, in an individual from Forrest County who had recently traveled to Florida.^[1] Three days later, on March 15, the state had a spike in cases (4) in the state bringing the total to 10.^[3] On March 16, two new cases in the state, one in Pearl River County and another Monroe County.^[4] On March 17, cases in the state jumped from 12 to 21, with 4 in Hinds County, 3 in Leflore County, one in Jackson County, and one in Harrison County. The next day, on March 18, cases spiked up to 34, with DeSoto County seeing their first case, along with Madison County and Perry County. Bolivar County saw their first 2 cases. The following day, on March 19, the state saw 16 cases and its first death.^[5] Harris and Pearl River counties saw 3 new cases each, while the counties of DeSoto, Forrest, and Jackson counties saw one additional case, while at least one new case were reported in the counties of Holmes, Jones, Smith, Walthall, Wilkinson, Winston, and Yazoo. On March 20, the state saw 30 new cases, bringing the total up to 80. New cases were reported in Adams, Franklin, Humphreys, Lawrence, Lee, Marshall, Monroe, Pike, Rankin, Tippah, and Webster counties, while additional cases were reported in Coahoma, DeSoto, Hancock, Harrison, Hinds, Holmes, Jackson, and Madison counties.^[6] On March 21, the state reported 60 new cases, jumping the total to 140.^[7] March 22 saw 67 new cases in the state, with most counties in the state ending up with a new case.^[8]

On July 9, the Mississippi statehouse was closed as 26 lawmakers and 10 Capitol employees tested positive for COVID-19. Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann and Speaker of the House Philip Gunn were infected. The legislature will quarantine for at least 14 days.^[9]

On July 21, 1,635 new cases and 31 new deaths were reported in the state.^[10]

By July 31, the state was at 83% ICU capacity, with some hospitals completely full and transferring patients out of state.^[11]

In June 2021, as Mississippi was one of five U.S. states with less than 35% of its population vaccinated, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, predicted the state was at risk for outbreaks of the Delta variant.^[12]

Government responses[]

On March 14, two days after the first case was announced in the state, Governor Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency, due to the impact of the coronavirus on the neighboring state of Louisiana. Louisiana at the time was the most infected state per capita.^[13] Reeves recently came back from a trip from Spain (a country hit hard by the virus) and stated that he will voluntarily work from home for precautionary purposes.^[13]

On March 15, Jackson's city mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba declared a civil emergency for the city.^[14]

On March 21, the mayor of Tupelo, Jason Shelton, imposed a stay-at-home order that went into effect early on March 22.^[15] The same day, Columbus put in a curfew from 10 pm to 6 am until further notice.^[16]

On March 24, Governor Reeves issued an executive order deeming most businesses as "essential" including restaurants, bars and other establishments, and limiting dine-in services to 10 persons. The order also banned local governments from imposing stricter orders.^[17] However, the wording of the executive order lead to some confusion among local governments on the authority of the state overriding that of restrictions put into place by municipalities and counties.^[18] In response to criticism and confusion expressed by the public and local officials, Governor Reeves issued a supplemental order on March 26 that clarified that stricter restrictions put into place by local governing bodies were allowed.^[19]

On April 1, a state-wide stay-at-home order was issued, requiring all non-essential businesses to close.^[20] This overrode previous allowances for dine-in services in restaurants made in the March 24 executive order.^[21] State health officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs confirmed that MSDH is tracking the number of available ventilators and the number of healthcare workers infected with COVID-19, but will not release the numbers publicly. Dr. Dobbs cited the potential for fear and confusion from the numbers, despite other states like Louisiana providing them.^[22] The April 1 order also included a provision to cease enforcement of eviction orders; however, on May 14, the governor ceased the suspension of evictions as of June 1.^[23][24]

On April 17, Reeves extended the stay-at-home order through April 27, 2020, while allowing Coast beaches and state lakes to reopen for recreation, and businesses to perform curbside pickup and delivery.^[25]

On April 27, the Governor reopened retail businesses, and elective dental and medical procedures resumed. However, on May 2, the governor postponed plans to reopen the economy after 397 new cases were confirmed, the largest increase Mississippi had experienced.^[26]

Beginning May 12, the wearing of face masks would be required in public when social distancing is not possible, and inside businesses, within seven counties identified as having a high rate of new cases. This included Attala, Leake, Scott, Jasper, Neshoba, Newton and Lauderdale counties. On May 28, the order was extended through June 8 and to Wayne County, while Attala, Leake, Scott and Newton were removed from the order due to a reduced number of cases.^[27][28]

As of June 9, 2020, Mississippi is using a 'presumed recovered' number of cases. The number is estimated based on it being 14 days or more since the case was tested positive, and they were not hospitalized, or 21 days since they tested positive, and they were hospitalized, or it is unknown if they were hospitalized.^{[citation needed]}

On July 11, Reeves announced a new mask order covering Claiborne, De Soto, Grenada, Harrison, Hinds, Jackson, Jefferson, Madison, Quitman, Rankin, Sunflower, Washington, and Wayne counties, which took effect on July 13.^[29]

Cases dropped by 54% after a statewide mask mandate was put in place on August 4, but began to rise again after that mandate was lifted on September 30. The statewide mandate was put in place as the county-by-county approach Reeves implemented over the summer failed to prevent a rising tide of new cases that threatened to overwhelm the state's hospitals. Despite calls from state health officials to reinstate the statewide mandate, the county by county approach remained in place as of November 14.^[30]

On March 2, 2021, Governor Reeves scaled back on his COVID-19 restriction executive orders. However, local governments were not restricted from issuing their own measures. The orders were replaced with recommendations. Tate claimed that the time for government intervention was over, citing the massive drop in hospitalization cases.

Impact on sports[]

On March 12, the National Collegiate Athletic Association cancelled all winter and spring tournaments, most notably the Division I men's and women's basketball tournaments, affecting colleges and universities statewide.^[31] On March 16, the National Junior College Athletic Association also canceled the remainder of the winter seasons as well as the spring seasons.^[32]

Statistics by county[]

This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (December 2020)

• v
• t

COVID-19 pandemic medical cases in Mississippi by county

County [a]	Cases [b][c]	Deaths [c]	Recov. [c][d]	Pop (2011)	Cases / 100k	Ref.
81 / 82	298,008	6,834	283,953	2,967,297	100.1
Adams	2,365	79	–	32,297	718.3
Alcorn	2,928	63	–	37,057	94.4
Amite	1,128	37	–	13,131	571.2
Attala	2,105	71	–	19,564	1,717.4
Benton	941	24	–	8,729	229.1
Bolivar	4,640	125	–	34,145	609.2
Calhoun	1,588	29	–	14,962	641.6
Carroll	1,197	25	–	10,597	1,255.1
Chickasaw	2,020	54	–	17,392	1,127
Choctaw	704	17	–	8,547	760.5
Claiborne	993	30	–	9,604	1,749.3
Clarke	1,713	74	–	16,732	1,087.7
Clay	1,794	53	–	20,634	1,017.7
Coahoma	2,835	69	–	26,151	615.7
Copiah	2,801	59	–	29,449	1,616.4
Covington	2,506	80	–	19,568	1,216.3
DeSoto	19,848	232	–	161,252	565.6
Forrest	7,309	138	–	74,934	972.9
Franklin	766	20	–	8,118	369.5
George	2,329	45	–	22,578	234.7
Greene	1,282	33	–	14,400	486.1
Grenada	2,492	78	–	21,906	890.2
Hancock	3,555	78	–	43,929	234.5
Harrison	16,943	288	–	187,105	248
Hinds	18,985	396	–	245,285	626.2
Holmes	1,835	70	–	19,198	2,547.1
Humphreys	933	28	–	9,375	992
Issaquena	167	6	–	1,406	426.7
Itawamba	2,907	75	–	23,401	465.8
Jackson	12,773	234	–	139,668	287.8
Jasper	2,148	45	–	17,062	1,242.5
Jefferson	630	27	–	7,726	815.4
Jefferson Davis	1,029	31	–	12,487	720.7
Jones	8,052	149	–	67,761	1,369.5
Kemper	916	23	–	10,456	1,606.7
Lafayette	5,777	114	–	47,351	536.4
Lamar	5,947	82	–	55,658	612.7
Lauderdale	6,892	228	–	80,261	1,055.3
Lawrence	1,218	21	–	12,929	997.8
Leake	2,550	72	–	23,805	2,113
Lee	9,729	163	–	82,910	451.1
Leflore	3,413	123	–	32,317	1,299.6
Lincoln	3,644	104	–	34,869	1,084.1
Lowndes	6,065	141	–	59,779	642.4
Madison	9,533	204	–	95,203	1,045.1
Marion	2,589	78	–	27,088	686.7
Marshall	4,071	96	–	37,144	382.3
Monroe	3,998	129	–	36,989	840.8
Montgomery	1,235	40	–	10,925	951.9
Neshoba	3,861	172	–	29,676	3,009.2
Newton	2,336	53	–	21,720	1,487.1
Noxubee	1,235	31	–	11,545	1,931.6
Oktibbeha	4,438	95	–	47,671	881
Panola	4,342	99	–	34,707	515.7
Pearl River	4,226	132	–	55,834	404.8
Perry	1,235	36	–	12,250	449
Pike	3,035	97	–	40,404	688.1
Pontotoc	4,111	71	–	29,957	427.3
Prentiss	2,712	58	–	25,276	308.6
Quitman	775	15	–	8,223	595.9
Rankin	12,864	266	–	141,617	431.4
Scott	2,971	71	–	28,264	2,476.6
Sharkey	492	17	–	4,916	264.4
Simpson	2,786	81	–	27,503	603.6
Smith	1,545	34	–	16,491	1,134
Stone	1,737	29	–	17,786	236.1
Sunflower	3,221	87	–	29,450	526.3
Tallahatchie	1,719	39	–	15,378	416.2
Tate	3,072	75	–	28,886	630.1
Tippah	2,806	65	–	22,232	476.8
Tishomingo	2,133	66	–	19,593	265.4
Tunica	1,007	24	–	10,778	705.1
Union	3,972	74	–	27,134	471.7
Walthall	1,258	41	–	15,443	861.2
Warren	4,146	115	–	48,773	678.7
Washington	5,236	130	–	51,137	590.6
Wayne	2,562	41	–	20,747	2,091.9
Webster	1,111	32	–	10,253	1,150.9
Wilkinson	627	27	–	9,878	860.5
Winston	2,226	79	–	19,198	927.2
Yalobusha	1,463	36	–	12,678	1,041.2
Yazoo	2,931	66	–	28,065	1,407.4
Updated February 22, 2021 Data is publicly reported by Mississippi State Department of Health[33]
^ County where individuals with a positive case was diagnosed. Location of original infection may vary. ^ Reported cases includes presumptive and confirmed case. Actual case numbers are probably higher. ^ Jump up to: a b c "–" denotes that no data is currently available for that county, not that the value is zero. ^ MSDH is not providing recovered case numbers by county. Local health departments could be providing this information at their discretion.

See also[]

• Timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
• COVID-19 pandemic in the United States – for impact on the country
• COVID-19 pandemic – for impact on other countries

References[]