COVID-19 risk factors trending lower, but still very high

Both the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) and DeSoto County Schools are expected to update their case numbers for COVID-19 on Tuesday. Updates were not made available Monday due to the President’s Day holiday. DeSoto County Schools typically update their new case and quarantine numbers weekly on Monday during the school year. MSDH updates on a daily basis each weekday.  

According to CovidActNow, the risk factor of getting COVID-19 for DeSoto County residents who have been vaccinated has dropped from “extremely high risk” to “very high risk” for contracting the virus. 

As of Feb. 21, 117,566 DeSoto County residents (63.6%) have received at least one dose, 98,329 (53.2%) have received at least two doses or a single Johnson & Johnson dose, and 32,180 (17.4%) have received a booster shot. 

The number of county residents who have had one dose of the vaccine puts DeSoto County 13th among the state’s 82 counties.  

Daily new cases of COVID-19 in DeSoto County are at 48.3 per 100,000 population, which ranks the county 59th among the state’s counties, and the positive test rate is 13.2 percent, which ranks DeSoto County 24th in the state. 

Between Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto and Methodist Olive Branch hospitals, 12 of the 32 adult ICU beds are filled with COVID-19 patients. Thirty of the 32 ICU beds were reportedly filled as of Monday, Feb. 21. While trending downward, COVID-19 hospitalizations seven-day average in DeSoto County was at 79.  

Over the past week, DeSoto County has averaged two deaths per day due to coronavirus.