An alarming number of young people in Mississippi have died of the COVID-19 coronavirus in the last several days, including two otherwise healthy pregnant women, the state’s top public health officer said Friday.

“When we look at the deaths that we’ve had over the past four days,” Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said. “We’ve lost four healthy people in their 20s, two of whom were pregnant, zero vaccinated.”

Dobbs said those four deaths were not just unusual cases and other young Mississippians have also died of the virus.

“If we look at those who are in their 30s, in the past four days, we’ve lost 10 people in their 30s,” Dobbs said. “And these aren’t people who are chronically ill, cancer patients.

“These are normal people who were at work a couple of people. 10 people in their 30s have died from Covid, zero vaccinated.”

Mississippi reported a record number of new cases on Friday with 5,023 new cases. The state has reported more than 37,600 new cases over the last two weeks.

Historically, approximately 15 percent of those cases will result in higher hospitalizations, Dobbs said.

Mississippi’s hospital system reported a record number of COVID-19 patients in state hospital beds Friday with 1,497 COVID patients hospitalized, breaking the prior record set yesterday.

Dobbs said the rapidly spreading delta variant of COVID-19 and the lack of hospital availability has changed his own personal habits.

He said he and others working at the Mississippi State Department of Health wear face masks indoors even though they’re all vaccinated against COVID.

“I’m actually going to drive extra careful,” Dobbs said.

Dobbs continues to urge Mississippians to get vaccinated, pointing out that of the 1.3 million who have received a COVID vaccine in the state, not a single person has died as a reaction to the vaccine.

“COVID is way worse than you could ever have from the vaccine,” Dobbs said.