Coronavirus related hospitalizations are straining Mississippi’s healthcare system, pushing the state’s limited number of doctors and nurses to care for a growing line of patients. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs. “Let me be clear. Things are bad, and getting worse. We’re seeing a rate of rise of hospitalizations that we haven’t seen yet. At all. It looks very likely that this fall surge is going to be far more severe than even our summer surge.”
He says upcoming holiday gatherings, like Thanksgiving, will likely spread the virus further. “People catch coronavirus from people they know. Their families. So as we go into the holiday season, understand how risky some of these endeavors can be right now, especially when the transmission levels are so, so very high.”
As coronavirus patients continue to fill Mississippi’s intensive care beds, the standard of care many people seek on a daily basis for heart attacks, strokes and other critical illnesses may not be available. But Timothy Moore with the Mississippi Hospital Association stresses that this doesn’t mean hospitals won’t treat those patients. He says “If you have an acute situation, do not sit at home and suffer from that. Seek the medical attention that you normally seek. That is so important that you know that. This is not to stop people who need healthcare to not get it. Don’t take us wrong here, that’s important. Those patients that we want to affect, are the potential patients that will contract COVID-19.”
Experts encourage residents to make the sacrifice and limit holiday gatherings to only nuclear families and prevent the coronavirus from traveling across the dinner table.
