Mississippi’s battle with the COVID-19 coronavirus keeps getting worse.

For the third time this week, Mississippi shattered another record for new COVID-19 coronavirus cases on Friday as the highly contagious delta variant continues to spread like a wildfire.

Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) officials reported Friday that 5,023 new coronavirus cases were found over the last 24 hours. That topped the previous record set on Thursday by more than 600 cases.

The additional cases reported Friday brings the total number of cases found in the state since the pandemic began to 381,147.

Mississippi has seen a steep rise in cases since early July. Only 12 days into the month of August, Mississippi has already reported more new cases than any month this year except January and appears on track to eclipse January’s totals before the end of the month.

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)	37,642

The high number of cases in the last 14 days means, statistically,  means more than 1 out of every 100 Mississippi residents has contracted the virus in the last two weeks.

MSDH reported 31 new deaths on Friday, bringing the total death toll to 7,761

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.

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 jumped to 3,285 on Friday, the highest level since the pandemic began. Friday’s average broke the previous 7-day average which was set yesterday.

The 14-day, daily average of new cases jumped to 2,689 with Friday’s update. It was the highest level since the pandemic began.

Cumulative Cases and Deaths by County