Mississippi’s staggering number of new COVID-19 coronavirus cases continued to climb Wednesday setting new records and hospitalizing more people than ever.

Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) officials reported Wednesday that 4,085 new coronavirus cases were found in the last 24 hours.

The additional cases reported Wednesday brings the total number of cases found in the state since the pandemic began to 396,394.

Through Tuesday, Mississippi hospitals were caring for a record 1,623 positive COVID cases with another 59 suspected cases in state hospital beds. A record 447 people were in ICU beds with 316 on ventilators.

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)	52,889

The high number of cases so far in August means, statistically,  means more than 1.8 out of every 100 Mississippi residents has contracted the virus this month.

MSDH reported 36 new deaths on Wednesday, bringing the total death toll to 7,916.

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 rose to 3,526 on Wednesday, another record high since the pandemic began.

The 14-day, daily average of new cases jumped to another new record to 3,107 with Wednesday’s update.

Cumulative Cases and Deaths by County