Schools report weekly cases, county COVID-19 update

DeSoto County Schools reported 32 new cases of coronavirus in the past week ending Friday, Jan. 8, the first week back from the Christmas holiday break.  

The weekly report from the school district also had a total of 290 new quarantines among the state’s largest public school district.

The most new cases were reported at DeSoto Central High School with five. There were four new cases each at Hernando High School and Southaven High School.  

The most quarantines reported were at Hernando High School with 55 and there were 30 new quarantines reported at DeSoto Central High School.  

Twenty school staff members were reported to have new cases of COVID-19 during the week.

The DeSoto County School District report is available on the district’s official website.

As a county, DeSoto County Monday reported 81 new cases of coronavirus for a total of 16,358. There was also one additional death report for a total of 155 in the county. 

DeSoto County remains the area with the most number of cases reported, but Hinds County remains the area where the virus has been the most fatal. Hinds is reporting 299 deaths from coronavirus, as of Monday morning.  

As of Jan. 2, the latest date available, the county’s positivity rate had risen to 22.4 percent for the two-week period from Dec. 17-31.  County cases totaled 2,058 for the two-week period from Dec. 14-27, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health, or 1,112.8 per 100,000 population.  

Total number of cases in Mississippi is at 240,309 as of Monday morning’s update and the state has recorded 5,186 deaths related to COVID-19.

The number of patients presumed to have recovered from the virus in the state is now at 182,013, as of Jan.3, the latest date available.  

The complete report is found on the Mississippi State Department of Health website.