Mississippi’s 7- and 14-day, daily average of new COVID-19 coronavirus cases rose for the second-straight day Monday with the latest statistics released by the Mississippi State Department of Health.

The state reported 511 new coronavirus cases were confirmed in the last 24 hours. The state also reported 8 more deaths Monday from the prior day.

Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said he’s “pleased to see a decline in daily COVID hospitalizations,” in a social media post Sunday night. Dobbs said he’s recommending state physicians push to do elective surgeries that require overnight hospital car soon because he fears the state’s number of coronavirus cases will spike soon.

On Friday, during a question and answer session with leaders of the Mississippi State Medical Association, Dobbs said based on younger people getting the virus lately and the likelihood they will, in turn, pass the virus along to older people, he expects Mississippi’s case count and hospital utilization to spike soon.

“We still have like 800 cases a day which is awful, but it’s not as bad as 1,700 right,” Dobbs said. “This is the real issue: We suspect within three to four weeks we’re going to have another crush, another peak, of cases because schools, colleges and really, really bad judgment coming together in a triumvirate of disaster.”

Through Monday’s statistics, 588 deaths have been reported in August from COVID-19.

With seven days remaining, August is already the second-deadliest month on record and appears to be on track to become the deadliest month.

July is currently the deadliest month on record for Mississippi with 593 reported deaths.

In total, 78,405 cases have been found in the state since March. The state believes more than 62,000 of those cases have recovered.

A total of 2,248 people in Mississippi have died as a result of coronavirus, the state reported.

The 7-day, daily average of new cases rose to 856 with Monday’s update.

The 14-day, daily average rose to 768  cases per day.