Elective surgeries postponed with beds at a premium

There was one additional death from coronavirus in DeSoto County reported by the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) on Friday, Dec. 11. 

MSDH has now reported 111 deaths in DeSoto County from the pandemic and a total number of cases in the county at 11,694 or 191 more than Thursday.  Twenty of the deaths have been at long-term care facilities, according to MSDH.  

As a state, Mississippi added 2,327 coronavirus cases on Friday and 41 additional deaths. That places the state at 175,282 cases and 4,124 deaths for the pandemic, according to state health officials.

The MSDH announced Friday that all elective surgeries that required hospitalization must be postponed, beginning Tuesday, Dec. 15.  The department stated that just under 10 percent (9.8 percent) of COVID-19 cases end up in the hospital. 

The shortage of hospital beds is given for the reason behind the decision to postpone elective surgeries. The Friday numbers from Methodist-Olive Branch Hospital have nine available staffed hospital beds and seven available ICU unit beds. 

Methodist-Olive Branch reported 19 patients with confirmed coronavirus infections and nine COVID patients in the hospital’s ICU.  

On Friday, Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto in Southaven reported no ICU beds available and two open hospital beds of its 192-bed capacity.  

Baptist-DeSoto had 65 confirmed COVID-19 patients in the hospital and 11 coronavirus patients in the ICU.  

New orders are set to be enacted at 5 p.m. Friday, as announced on Friday by Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves. Additional counties were added and a few were removed from the mask mandate, which now will cover 61 counties and still include DeSoto County. 

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency posted this graphic highlighting the new changes in executive orders issued by the governor.