This Mississippi county had more COVID-19 cases per capita last week than any other place in America

Published 12:31 pm Wednesday, August 11, 2021

In what should really surprise no one, just weeks after the end of a state tradition dubbed “Mississippi’s Giant Houseparty” the county where the event is held leads the nation in new COVID-19 coronavirus cases on a per capita basis.

Statistics compiled by The New York Times shows Neshoba County is the county in the U.S. with the highest number of cases per 100,000 population in the last seven days.

Three other Mississippi counties were in the top five of that list – George County at No. 4 and Stone County at No. 5.

Subscribe to our free email newsletter

Get the latest news sent to your inbox

The Neshoba County Fair was held between July 23 and July 30. Thousands attended the fair and photographs circulating online showed most of them were unmasked and often sitting in large groups, close together.

The newspaper’s data shows the county has seen 77 cases per day and 263 cases per 100,000 population, an increase of 626% in the last two weeks.