Coronavirus hospitalization rates in Mississippi have risen nearly 60% in two weeks. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said this could be linked to the spread of coronavirus variants, such as the highly transmissible Delta strain.
“This is something that we’ve been anticipating for a while, we have too many vulnerable people in Mississippi, we have too many who are non-immune, and now we have this highly contagious variant,” said Dr. Dobbs.
A new, more transmissible coronavirus variant known as "Delta plus" was recently identified in Louisiana, but no cases have yet been found in Mississippi. Dr. Dobbs said it could already be in the state, but not yet identified by surveillance teams.
He said, “The Delta variant is not going to be the last variant we see, and the longer that we leave ourselves vulnerable the more likely we are to see these variants wreak havoc on these unimmune parts of our population.”
Dr. Dobbs said the Department of Health is also working to diversify where samples are collected for future variant surveillance.
At the University of Mississippi Medical Center, there have been no significant increases in hospitalizations according to Dr. Alan Jones, Associate Vice Chancellor for Clinical Affairs. But he said that could change if variants continue to spread while the majority of Mississippians are unvaccinated.
“We certainly remain concerned that we may see significant increases in the hospitalization rate among the unvaccinated if that Delta variant becomes the predominate strain and is much more infectious as is suspected,” said Dr. Jones.
Health officials are urging all residents to get the coronavirus vaccine to prevent the spread of variants and preserve the effectiveness of current vaccinations.
