New cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus continued to pile up across all corners of Mississippi Thursday as the state released the latest statistics showing that more than 8,200 cases were found on Tuesday.

State health department officials had to delay the release of the Tuesday, new case counts due to high volumes of data slowing their work. The data released early Thursday normally would have been made public on Wednesday, but the record number of new cases was too much for health officials to process on schedule.

Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) officials reported early Thursday that 8,204 new coronavirus cases were found in a 24-hour period that ended at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

In the last two weeks, 78,120 cases have been officially logged, though the number is likely much higher due to at-home tests typically not being reported to the state health department.

To put the rapid spread in perspective,  in the last 14 days approximately 1 in every 38 Mississippians has tested positive for the virus. Cases found in the last two weeks now represent 13 percent of the total cases found since the pandemic began, nearly two years ago.

The additional cases reported early Thursday bring the total number of cases found in the state since the pandemic began to 616,972.

Although health experts say the new omicron variant tends to require less hospital care than previous variants, the massive number of new cases in this wave is still causing hospitalizations to grow rapidly.

Through Tuesday, 1,267 patients were hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19, the state health department reported. By comparison at the beginning of December less than 200 COVID patients were hospitalized.

MSDH reported 26 new deaths on Wednesday, bringing the total death toll to 10,589.

Through Wednesday, 49 percent of the total Mississippi population has been fully vaccinated. The number of fully vaccinated Mississippians remains below the U.S. average of 63 percent.

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 Thursday to 6,325, a new record high.

The 14-day, daily average of new cases rose sharply to 5,580 with Thursday’s update. It was another new all-time high.

Cumulative Cases and Deaths by County