With 11 days left in the month, January just became Mississippi’s second-deadliest month for COVID-19 coronavirus deaths with the latest statistics released Wednesday by the state.

The Mississippi State Health Department reported 64 new deaths on Wednesday, bringing the total death toll to 5,638. In the first 20 days of January 854 deaths have been reported, making it second on the list of most COVID deaths reported since the pandemic began. In December, 982 deaths 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 Wednesday occurred in the last 24 hours.

The state reported Wednesday 1,702 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 256,827.

The 14-day, daily average of new cases dropped to 1,846 on Wednesday.

The 7-day, daily average of new cases dipped to 2,042 with Wednesday’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.