The spread of the highly contagious delta variant of the COVID-19 coronavirus continued to accelerate over the weeks as new case numbers soared to near-record highs, the state reported Monday.

Mississippi reported nearly 7,000 new cases over the weekend, which would include new cases found Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) officials reported Monday that 6,912 new coronavirus cases were found over the weekend.

The additional cases reported Monday brings the total number of cases found in the state since the pandemic began to 365,061.

Mississippi has been seeing a steep incline in cases since early July. Monday’s weekend report of 6,912 new cases, by comparison, is more than the total numbers of case reported each month in the months of April, May and June. In addition, with only a week’s worth of data collected August’s total new cases have nearly eclipsed the entire month of July.

Here’s how the monthly numbers break down for each month of 2021:

January ’21	59,185
February ’21	19,794
March ’21	10,351
April ’21	6,754
May ’21	5,931
June ’21	4,051
July ’21	21,741
August ’21 (MTD)	21,556

MSDH reported 28 new deaths on Monday, bringing the total death toll to 7,649.

Mississippi health leaders have said that a combination of a low overall vaccination rate among Mississippians along with a rapidly spreading Delta variant is causing the recent surge in cases.

Through Friday morning, approximately 39% of all Mississippians have received at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccines available.

And approximately 33% of Mississippi’s population are fully vaccinated, the state reported.

For more detailed county-by-county vaccination results visit: https://msdh.ms.gov/msdhsite/_static/resources/12130.pdf

The 7-day, daily average of new cases soared to 2,366 on Monday, the highest level since January 11 and third-highest level since the pandemic began.

The 14-day, daily average of new cases jumped to 2,020 with Monday’s update. It was the highest level since January 20.

Cumulative Cases and Deaths by County