Mississippi’s coronavirus fight had mixed news Monday as the state recorded the lowest number of new COVID-19 cases reported since early July, but also ended August with more than 800 deaths reported, a sign of just how bad the prior month was as cases skyrocketed in July.

Mississippi closed out August with approximately 24,000 new cases of the virus confirmed. By comparison, July had more than 31,000 new cases.

On Monday, the state reported 274 new coronavirus cases were confirmed in the last 24 hours. It was the lowest single-day count of new virus cases since early July.

The state also reported 32 more deaths Monday from the prior day. The state said 19 of the deaths occurred earlier, between July 8 and August 24, but were delayed in reporting.

Through Monday’s statistics, 813 deaths have been reported in August from COVID-19, making August the deadliest month on record for Mississippi.

Here is the unofficial death toll, by month:

March	20
April	241
May	474
June	339
July	593
August	813

The monthly death tolls, however, are not exact due to delays in reporting that can cause deaths to be reported weeks after the person died.

In total, 82,950 cases have been found in the state since March. The state believes approximately 68,000 of those cases have recovered.

A total of 2,473 people in Mississippi have died as a result of coronavirus, the state reported.

The 7-day, daily average of new cases dropped to 649 with Monday’s update.

The 14-day, daily average remained at 753  cases per day.