Mississippi has the highest coronavirus mortality rate in the nation, though transmission of the disease has declined in recent weeks. State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers continues to ask residents to get vaccinated to slow transmission of the virus throughout the state.
“We’re still in the thick of it guys. We’ve had almost 20,000 cases this month alone, and we’re still just halfway through the month. And so we anticipate that those numbers are gonna increase at the levels of daily case reports that we’re having now. And with that overwhelming number of cases that we had in August, we’re really do anticipate that we’re going to continuing to see high numbers of deaths, at least for the short term.”
In the month of August, more than 94,000 cases were identified in Mississippi. Dr. Byers says that makes up around 20% of all of the state’s total coronavirus cases throughout the pandemic.
While new coronavirus cases have seen a noticeable downturn, hospitalizations are declining at a lower rate. Jim Craig with the Department of Health says the state’s healthcare system is still under duress. He says at one point yesterday, there were more than 100 patients in emergency rooms waiting for fewer than 40 ICU beds.
“While we continue to see some improvement in hospital bed availability around the state this week, our ICU bed capacity available continues to be limited. This week we’ve seen a decrease of COVID-19 patients in ICUs, and an increase in non-COVID-19 patients. So that’s a little different.”
Contracts with federal relief teams at several hospitals across the state have been extended to continue assisting with overburdened intensive care facilities. Around 85% of all hospitals' requests for federal assistance have been provided.
Health officials estimate that Mississippi has the highest utilization rate of monoclonal antibody treatments in the nation. These treatments are provided to residents with qualifying illnesses or of a certain age range and are capable of reducing the potential severity of a coronavirus infection.
