Mississippi coronavirus hospitalizations skyrocket in last two weeks, still below record highs
Published 12:01 pm Thursday, December 30, 2021
While still far from the peaks of last summer’s delta wave, the number of Mississippians hospitalized with the COVID-19 coronavirus have skyrocketed in the last two weeks.
Through Wednesday, the Mississippi State Department of Health reported 514 people were hospitalized with the virus. That number is more than double the number hospitalized on December 16, approximately 14 days ago.
On December one, the number of hospitalized Mississippians was 201 patients.
Of the hospitalized coronavirus patients Wednesday, 123 were in ICU beds and 57 required mechanical ventilation. That’s compared to 56 ICU patients on December 1 and 31 on ventilators.
Although across the state, health department stats showed late Monday more than 100 available ICU beds, some pockets of the state were already tight.
The state’s largest hospital, the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, showed no ICU beds available, as did Mississippi Baptist Medical Center in Jackson. Combined, the other major hospitals in the Jackson area only showed a total of nine ICU beds available through Wednesday.