Mississippi's daily new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations have increased recently. During a Mississippi State Medical Association round table, doctors say they are disappointed about low mask usage in Mississippi, and another spike in cases could come soon. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs says he is already warning hospitals that they should begin limiting elective operations to prepare for that wave. "I know it makes everybody very angry when we start restricting elective surgeries, but now is the time to prevent us from having to do anything, because we don't wanna do anything. We wanna leave it in control of the physicians, in control of the health systems to sort of manage that load, but we can't have people not having access to care," says Dr. Dobbs.
Over the past week, the number of Mississippi students in quarantine increased by 2000. State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers says most school outbreaks occur during extracurricular activities like football, band and cheer. "We've got to choose really what is the goal of having school. We're learning how important some of those things are to kids and to the schools but in a minute, you've got to make sure that the main thing is the main thing. And you may not keep that main thing if you're trying to do all of the other stuff," says Dr. Byers.
Around 103,000 people in Mississippi have contracted the coronavirus, and more than 3000 have died.
