New COVID cases in county drop, over 200 virus-related deaths
State health officials Monday reported that DeSoto County had 38 more cases of coronavirus, as of 6 p.m. Monday and one more death report related to COVID-19.
The 38 new cases were nine fewer than the 47 additional cases of the virus MSDH recorded on Sunday. In all, DeSoto County has seen 18,408 coronavirus cases since last March’s onset of the pandemic. There have been 202 confirmed virus-related deaths from the county.
As a state Monday, Mississippi added 705 new cases of coronavirus to its toll and 11 new deaths. The total number of cases in the Magnolia State are at 275,706 and the number of deaths from the virus is now at 6.056.
Ten of the latest deaths are from the time period Dec, 30-Jan. 23 and the other occurred on Jan. 30 in Forrest County.
DeSoto County Schools (DCS) Monday also released its weekly report of new cases and quarantines at its school campuses. A total of 95 new COVID-19 classes were recorded among the schools and there were 639 students placed in quarantine during the past week, ending Jan. 29.
The school with the most new cases was Center Hill Middle School with 11. There were seven new cases at DeSoto Central Middle School and six new cases at Hernando High School and Lewisburg Middle School.
DeSoto Central Middle also had the most new quarantines reported with 93 students placed. Lewisburg Middle has 57 new quarantines and there were 53 in quarantine at Center Hill Middle School.
Among school teachers and staff, 36 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded in DCS schools.
The complete weekly report is found on the DeSoto County Schools website at https://bit.ly/3j8xKcT
At last report, the test positivity rate for coronavirus in DeSoto County had fallen from a high earlier in January of 23.0 percent for the two-week period of Dec. 24-Jan. 6, to 16.3 percent as of Jan. 23, for the two-week period from Jan. 7-20.
County EMS Director Mark Davis, at Monday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, said numbers appear to be trending slightly downward in recent weeks, but he also acknowledged the number of tests for coronavirus has also fallen.
The 16.3 percent figure keeps DeSoto County in the “red zone,” however, a basis for continuing the county in a mask mandate order. It is part of an extension of Gov. Tate Reeves’ executive order that is to expire Wednesday unless amended or further extended. The latest executive order is found on Secretary of State Michael Watson’s website at: https://bit.ly/2L9NG1T
In Monday’s report to MSDH, Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto in Southaven had 50 coronavirus patients in its hospital, the same number of Sunday’s report, and had nine adult COVID-19 patients in intensive care, again the same as Monday.
Methodist-Olive Branch Hospital reported 14 coronavirus patients at its facility and eight ICU patients with the virus, numbers again that were the same as Sunday’s report.
Gov. Tate Reeves on Sunday said second dose appointments for both the Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccines were available in a number of counties, including DeSoto County.
To make the appointment, go to www.covidvaccine.umc.edu or call 877-978-6453.
Those eligible and seeking first dose vaccines should go to the same website or call the same number to schedule appointments, however appointments go quickly and you’re encouraged keep trying if not successful at first.
Additional doses, as many as 800 a day, were to be made available for the DeSoto County vaccination site at Landers Center this week. Getting appointments for those eligible remains challenging, however and people were asked to be patient and keep trying the phone number or website to schedule an appointment.
