Mississippi coronavirus cases surging again, two weeks after mask mandate dropped
Published 12:03 pm Friday, October 16, 2020
For the second-straight day, Mississippi reported a surge in new COVID-19 coronavirus cases.
On Friday, the state reported 1,116 new cases, bringing the total cases since the pandemic began in March to 109,255. Of those cases, the state believes approximately 94,000 have recovered.
Friday’s new case number was the second day in a row of new case numbers above 1,000.
The spike in cases reported Friday follows a growing number of cases over the last several days. In the last 7 days more than 5,500 new cases have been identified. It’s been since the end of August when Mississippi saw any 7-day period with more cases. In the last two weeks nearly 9,700 new cases have been identified.
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, Dr. LouAnn Woodward, who leads the University of Mississippi Medical Center took to social media to urge Mississippians to wear masks even without a state mandate.
The state reported nine new deaths Friday. Of those deaths, all occurred between October 3 and October 15.
The state’s 7-day and 14-day, daily averages for new COVID-19 cases saw large increases with Friday’s high number of daily cases.
The 7-day, daily average of new cases jumped to 796 with Friday’s update. That’s the highest 7-day average since August 25.
The 14-day, daily average rose to 693 cases per day, the highest number seen since September 2.
