No one knows why this Mississippi county has nearly seven times state average of new coronavirus cases
Published 2:43 pm Friday, April 30, 2021
One Mississippi county has averaged nearly six times the state average of incidence of new COVID-19 coronavirus cases.
“This pandemic is not over,” Dr. Lee England told The Natchez Democrat newspaper. “I’ve been personally looking for another wave to come through with the British variant in the county. … I don’t know if that is what may have caused it.”
The “it” England referred to is a late-week spike in cases in Adams County, located in Southwest Mississippi.
The Mississippi State Department of Health reported a total of 741 new cases reported across the state over the past three days. Adams County’s 94 COVID-19 cases made up more than 12.7 percent of the state’s new cases while the population of Adams County makes up a little more than 1 percent of state’s population.
The county tied that record on Wednesday. The state health department also reported another 31 new cases on Thursday, creating a total of 94 new cases reported in the county over the past three days.
The county’s case incidence — the average 7-day, daily number of new cases per 100,000 population — was 43.8 through Thursday’s numbers. That’s compared to 7.4 as a state average.
England said he was not certain what may have led to the county’s high number of cases.
“I’ve been reading about it and the British variant is considerably more contagious than the traditional coronavirus,” he said. “It is also said to be a more severe disease. … I don’t know if we are coming up on another big spike or an isolated spike. You have to watch what the trends are.”