After breaking multiple records Sunday, Mississippi’s pace of new COVID-19 coronavirus cases took a brief pause Monday as the state reported the lowest number of cases in more than two weeks.

The Mississippi State Health Department reported Monday 1,227 new cases were found in the last 24 hours. That brings the total number of cases found in the state since the pandemic began to 240,309.

In the last 14 days more than 32,000 new cases have been found in Mississippi, more than all but two complete months of the pandemic — July and December.

In addition, the state reported another 19 new deaths on Monday, bringing the total death toll to 5,186. In the first nine days of January 401 deaths have been reported.

Because some deaths reported on a given day or in a given month may have occurred earlier, not all of the deaths reported Monday occurred in the last 24 hours.

Of the total cases, the state believes approximately 198,888 cases have recovered and while many people who are infected with the virus may only have moderate or even no visible symptoms, others can get gravely ill and can die as a result.

The high number of new cases over the last several weeks has put pressure on the state’s hospital system.

Through Friday’s statistics, Mississippi’s total ICU capacity was operating at approximately 93-percent full. Of the occupied ICU beds, approximately 43 percent were filled by COVID-19 patients.

The 14-day, daily average of new cases dropped to 2,376 on Monday.

The 7-day, daily average of new cases dipped to 2,301 with Monday’s update.