Mississippi reported the lowest, single-day number of new COVID-19 coronavirus cases since Christmas Tuesday, but dozens more deaths blamed on the virus.

The Mississippi State Health Department reported 51 new deaths on Tuesday, bringing the total death toll to 5,574. In the first 19 days of January 790 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 Tuesday occurred in the last 24 hours.

The state reported Tuesday 1,193 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 255,125.

The 14-day, daily average of new cases dropped to 1,880 on Tuesday.

The 7-day, daily average of new cases dipped to 2,120 with Tuesday’s update.

Of the total cases, the state believes approximately 207,769 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.