Mississippi’s spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus seemed to slow slightly with the latest numbers released Sunday, but the pace of deaths reported so far in January puts the month on pace to be the deadliest of the pandemic.

The Mississippi State Health Department reported 40 new deaths on Sunday, bringing the total death toll to 5,521. In the first 17 days of January 736 deaths have been reported, making it third on the list of most COVID deaths reported since the pandemic began. In December, 982 deaths were reported. In August, 813 were reported.

If the pace of deaths reported in January were to continue through the end of the month, the state may see as many as 1,300 deaths.

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

The state reported Sunday 1,606 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 252,475.

The 14-day, daily average of new cases dropped to 1,913 on Sunday.

The 7-day, daily average of new cases dipped to 2,172 with Sunday’s update.

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.