Almost right on cue with the earlier warnings from infectious disease experts, Mississippi saw a huge spike Thursday in new COVID-19 coronavirus infections, just two weeks after the statewide face mask mandate was allowed to expire.

On Thursday, the state reported 1,324 new cases, bringing the total cases since the pandemic began in March to 108,139. Of those cases, the state believes approximately 94,000 have recovered.

Thursday’s new case number was the highest single-day report of new cases in a 24-hour period since August 19.

The spike in cases reported Thursday follows a growing number of cases over the last several days. In the last 7 days 5,320 new cases have been identified. It’s been since the end of August when Mississippi saw any 7-day period with more cases.

Many health experts warned that a spike would come soon after Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves allowed the statewide mask mandate to expire at the beginning of October.

On Thursday morning, after seeing the newly released data, Dr. LouAnn Woodward, who leads the University of Mississippi Medial Center took to social media to urge Mississippians to wear masks even without a state mandate.

The state reported 12 new deaths Thursday. Of those deaths, 11 actually occurred between October 3 and October 14, and one occurred on August 23. A total of 3,152 people in Mississippi have died as a result of coronavirus, the state reported.

The state’s 7-day and 14-day, daily averages for new COVID-19 cases saw large increases with Thursday’s high number of daily cases.

The 7-day, daily average of new cases jumped to 760 with Thursday’s update. That’s the highest 7-day average since August 26.

The 14-day, daily average rose to 661 cases per day.