Baptist hospitals to get COVID-19 vaccines

Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation confirmed Monday morning that its Southaven hospital will among the first to receive COVID-19 vaccine for its employees. A Baptist spokeswoman said it had not been confirmed when they will start giving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to its Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto employees but the vaccine will be received tomorrow. 

The Baptist hospital in Jonesboro, Arkansas is receiving the vaccines Monday and is vaccinating employees almost immediately, while the Baptist-Memphis hospital will get the vaccine on Thursday.  

Other hospitals in the Baptist Memorial Health Care system will be getting the Moderna vaccines once it have been authorized for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.  

Monday’s update on COVID-19 cases in Mississippi shows DeSoto County now past the 12,000 mark for cases with a total of 12,089 cases, or 113 more from Sunday’s update. 

DeSoto County has recorded 114 death reports, which the Mississippi State Depatment of Health (MSDH) is listing as from coronavirus.  

Mississippi as a state Sunday recorded 1,648 new COVID-19 cases and five new death reports, according to the MSDH. The state has now seen a total of 181,095 cases during the pandemic and 4,204 deaths.   

In the two-week period from Nov, 23-Dec. 6, DeSoto County reported 1,554 new cases, putting it atop the state for new cases, which is 840.2 cases per 100,000 population. 

Hinds County, which has had the most number of deaths from coronavirus at 222, is second in the state with 1,428 cases in that two-week period, or 615.9 pert 100,000 population.  

A total of 136,627 COVID-19 victims have recovered in Mississippi through Dec. 6, according to the MSDH. 

In Monday’s report, Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto reported 11 available staffed beds but no ICU adult beds available.  

Methodist-Olive Branch reported five available staffed beds and six available adult ICU beds.  

The Olive Branch hospital has 42 staffed beds at its hospital and 20 ICU beds. Methodist-Olive Branch has 19 confirmed COVID-19 patients and seven adults COVID patients in ICU.  

Baptist-DeSoto has 58 confirmed COVID patients and 16 COVID patients in ICU. The Southaven hospital has 192 total beds and 36 ICU beds.