Mississippi sees highest spike in new coronavirus cases in nearly two months

by

kobee vance

• Published on October 16, 2020 • Last modified on October 15, 2020 • Comments

Trend of daily confirmed COVID-19 cases are increasing
MSDH

Coronavirus cases are rising in Mississippi, and experts say the state could be on the verge of a second wave of the virus. On Monday, they predicted this increase.

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The Mississippi State Department of Health is reporting 1322 new coronavirus cases, the highest in nearly two months. During a virtual press conference Monday, State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs discussed an upward trend in recent cases. "I'm actually very concerned that we're going into a phase. I mean it's kind of like reading the stock market sometimes, you don't really know what's going to happen, but we do have some indicators, right? And all the indicators are looking in the wrong direction," said Dr. Dobbs. "We have hospitalizations are up, cases are up, and we know that our COVID-19 like illness indicators are up. And the last time we saw that was before the summer surge."

Transmission of the virus peaked in late July. State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said it seems community transmission is increasing like it did over the summer. "Under most circumstances when we start seeing increases in a county, it's because we're starting to see community transmission," said Dr. Byers. "It's nothing mystical, it's the fact that we see more people being infected. It's not surprising that periodically we're gonna see some upswings in the number of cases."

Dr. Dobbs said it's not too late to reverse this trend if people wear masks and social distance.