Mississippi’s seven day coronavirus average is 240, a slight bump above the case count earlier in the month according to State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers. He says a more easily transmitted variant is showing up across the state now.
“The vast majority of those have been the UK variant which is now estimated to be the dominant strain in the U.S. We’ve seen over 300 cases of the UK variant in Mississippi,” said Byers.
Byers say getting vaccinated is the key to reducing the risk of being infected with COVID 19. Health officials also released a survey of 11,000 Mississippians regarding their intent to get vaccinated. Victor Sutton with the health department says 73 percent of Mississippians said they plan to get vaccinated. And he says the greatest influence on their decision isn’t a celebrity.
“Around 60 percent would take the vaccine if they were encouraged by their regular primary care provider. Around 51 percent were encouraged by the CDC and our state health officer. Around 45 percent indicated if there was a close relative, father, mother and so forth, they were encouraged,” said Sutton.
Sutton says the information will help with outreach. Officials say they’re focusing on rural areas and the homebound. They added they are always seeking business, civic and faith-based organizations to host vaccine events. Twenty-four percent of Mississippians have been fully vaccinated, that's 769,000 people.
In all more than 1.6 million doses of vaccine have been administered in Mississippi. Nine-hundred-forty-thousand people have received at least one dose.
The single dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine is also available now, after the Centers for Disease and Prevention paused it's use to review rare cases of blood clots. The CDC found the risk to be very low.
