The COVID-19 coronavirus continued to spread rapidly across Mississippi Tuesday as the state’s 14-day, daily average topped 3,000 for the first time.

Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) officials reported Tuesday that 3,323 new coronavirus cases were found in the last 24 hours.

The additional cases reported Tuesday brings the total number of cases found in the state since the pandemic began to 392,309.

Mississippi has seen a steep rise in cases since early July.

Since the beginning of August, Mississippi has already reported more new cases than any month this year began except January.

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)	48,804

The high number of cases so far in August means, statistically,  means more than 1.6 out of every 100 Mississippi residents has contracted the virus this month.

MSDH reported 67 new deaths on Tuesday, bringing the total death toll to 7,880.

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 dipped slightly to 3,394 on Tuesday. The 7-day average remained at the second-highest level since the pandemic began. The record was set Monday with 3,418.

The 14-day, daily average of new cases jumped to another new record to 3,017 with Tuesday’s update. It was the highest level since the pandemic began and broke the prior record that was set on Monday.

Cumulative Cases and Deaths by County