School district tops 80 new COVID-19 case reports

Hernando High School continues to be a DeSoto County Schools’ campus hit hard with new cases of coronavirus, according to the district’s weekly report on new cases and quarantines. 

In last week’s report, Hernando High had a district-high eight new positive cases of the virus. In Monday’s report, 14 new cases have been added at Hernando.  

There are 80 new quarantines reported at the Hernando high school as of Monday. But, that is not the school with the most quarantines, as Southaven Middle School added 150 new quarantines just at their campus. 

The numbers are part of 743 new quarantines in Mississippi’s largest school district, arguably the most one-week total for quarantines since reporting started with pandemic onset in the spring. DCS totals 81 new positive cases from the past week.  

Some of the higher numbers for cases beyond Hernando High School came from Lewisburg Middle School (7), Southaven Middle (6), and five each at Horn Lake High School, Lewisburg High School, Southaven High and Southaven Intermediate schools.  

Larger quarantine numbers after Southaven Middle and Hernando High came from Hernando Middle (59), DeSoto Central Middle (41), and Lake Cormorant High School (36)

The number of staff members with a positive COVID-19 test in the past week totaled 38, eight more from the previous week.  

There have been 340 more quarantines in the school district since the prior Monday’s report.  

The complete report is found on the DeSoto County School District website: https://content.schoolinsites.com/api/documents/a4fca6abe179435bbf002b59ea08c031.pdf

Monday, the Mississippi State Department of Health reported 589 new positive cases of coronavirus since Sunday’s update and there have been two additional deaths. MSDH also reported 145 new long-term care outbreaks since its last update on Sunday.  

DeSoto County has reported 149 new case reports for a total of 8,912 positives and there have been no additional deaths, a total of 87 victims in the county, 20 of which were in long-term care facilities, among 101 LTC outbreaks.  

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves was expected to address the COVID-19 situation during a Facebook Live update at 2:30 p.m. Monday afternoon. 

Reeves and MSDH Chief Medical Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs were taken to task this weekend on social media by Southaven Mayor Darren Musselwhite, who termed their description of COVID-19 in the county misleading and did not factor DeSoto County’s position as the most-densely populated county in Mississippi with its proximity to Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee.  

FREE TESTING AVAILABLE: DeSoto County residents are reminded that free COVID-19 rapid testing is continuing Tuesdays and Friday at the County Health Department, 3212 Highway 51 South, Suite A, in Hernando. 

Hours are from 11 a.m-6 p.m. 

To take part, you must make an appointment by calling 601-496-7200, between 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday or by completing the University of Mississippi Medical Center online patient screening form at the website address https://msdh.ms.gov/msdhsite/_static/14,22406,420,874.html