Mississippi marked another grim milestone Tuesday in its battle against the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic – a new record high number of reported deaths in a single month, and the month isn’t over yet.

The Mississippi State Health Department reported 75 new deaths on Tuesday, bringing the total death toll to 5,852. The newly reported deaths caused January to move ahead of the monthly record of deaths set last month.

In the first 26 days of January 1,069 deaths have been reported, making January the month with the most COVID deaths reported since the pandemic began.

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 1,452 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 266,598.

The 14-day, daily average of new cases rose to 1,639 on Tuesday.

The 7-day, daily average of new cases dropped to 1,760 with Tuesday’s update, the lowest 14-day average since the first week of December.

Of the total cases, the state believes approximately 222,812 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.