COVID-19 deaths in Mississippi topped 3,000 Saturday, cases now over 100,000

Mississippi COVID-19 cases topped 100,000 Saturday, and the number of people who have died from the virus in the Magnolia State is now over 3,000.

The Mississippi State Department of Health reported three new COVID-19 cases in Warren County Saturday and no new deaths. The cumulative number of cases in Warren County to date is 1,428, and the county’s death toll is 50.

Statewide, MSDH reported 609 new COVID-19 cases Saturday, bringing the total cumulative confirmed cases in Mississippi to 100,167. The seven-day average of new cases is 498, about 81.9% of where it was a month ago.

Most new cases are seen in younger people recently, and they are more likely to survive the virus than those 65 and older. By far, the age group reporting the most cases in Mississippi are young people from 18 to 29 years old.

MSDH reported Saturday that 16 additional Mississippians died of COVID-19 statewide. The cumulative number of deaths in the state is 3,015. The state’s rate of deaths to confirmed cases is about 3%.

Deaths are a lagging indicator. While July saw the highest number of new cases since the crisis began, August saw the highest number of deaths. The highest number of deaths in any one day was 67 reported Aug. 25.

MSDH reported Saturday that nine deaths occurred between Sept. 20 and Oct. 2 in the following counties:

Seven COVID-19 related deaths occurred between July 11 and Sept. 26 and were identified from death certificate reports.

New cases and deaths were reported to MSDH as of 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2. MSDH usually reports new statistics on the COVID-19 coronavirus each day based on the previous day’s testing and death reports.

The primary metric concerning state health officials are the numbers of people hospitalized, and that number rose steadily with the rise of new cases in July and August. On June 6, the number of Mississippians hospitalized with confirmed cases of COVID-19 was at 358. Hospitalizations nearly tripled by late July. They leveled off in early August and began noticeably dropping in the middle of the month including critical cases and numbers of people requiring ventilators. Hospitalizations continued to drop in September but levelled off at the middle of the month. They started dropping again the last week of Sep.

The number of Mississippians hospitalized for the virus as of 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, is 515, less than half of the late July peak of more than 1,200. The number includes 412 with confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 103 people with suspected but unconfirmed cases. Of those with confirmed infections, 132 were critically ill and in intensive care units and 69 were on ventilators.

Source: MSDH

MSDH has estimated the number of people who can be presumed recovered from COVID-19 in Mississippi. That number is 89,737 through Sunday, Sept. 27. This figure is updated weekly. It represents about 89.6% of the cumulative 100,167 cases reported Saturday, Oct. 3.

The number of cases in Warren County three weeks ago, Saturday, Sept. 12, was 1,352, therefore the estimated number of people presumed recovered in the county is 1,302, or about 91.2% of the 1,428 cumulative cases reported as of Saturday, Oct. 3. The county has an estimated 76 active cases.

These estimates are based on MSDH’s guidelines for calculating estimated recoveries when hospitalizations are not known, using the number of cases 21 days ago, less known outcomes (deaths).

The total number of Mississippians tested for COVID-19 (PCR and antigen tests identifying current infections) as of Sunday, Sept. 27, is 785,465 or about 26.4% of the state’s 2.976 million residents. Testing data is updated weekly. The positivity rate (positive results to tests, seven-day average) was 29.3% Thursday according to Johns Hopkins University, reflecting the fact that the state is not reporting testing numbers on a daily basis, and also indicating the state is not testing enough and case counts are probably underreported. Mississippi’s positivity rate had been the highest or among the highest in the nation for weeks. The national rate is 4.6%, and 5% indicates adequate testing.

The total number of outbreaks in long-term care facilities is 122 Saturday. About 40.8%, or 1,227, of the state’s total deaths were people in long-term care facilities.

A total of 24 deaths in Warren County were residents of LTC facilities.

MSDH is no longer reporting outbreaks in individual long-term care facilities in Mississippi and has replaced it with a database from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. You can access and search the data here. The latest data available is for the week ending Sept. 20.

For additional information, visit the MSDH website.