View our Data Dive showing the current requirements on masks and face coverings from public colleges and universities in Mississippi for the 2021 fall semester. As of Friday, every public college and university in Mississippi is requiring students, faculty and staff to wear masks indoors.
Mississippi is one of 11 states — including Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming — that currently do not require a COVID-19 vaccination to attend their schools.
Mississippi Today reviewed the mask requirements for each institution through social media accounts, phone calls and examination of the updates posted to each school’s website.
We will update this searchable and downloadable chart regularly as public institutions of higher education navigate the latest COVID-19 restrictions affecting college campuses.
To view an individual school's COVID-19 reopening plans and updates, click here.
This is part of Mississippi Today's Data Dive, a series of data-focused stories to help break down crucial news and information for Mississippians.
Gov. Tate Reeves and State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs, the two most public faces in Mississippi’s fight to curtail COVID-19, both have touted their cooperative working relationship during their countless joint news conferences on the coronavirus.
While they remained cordial on Friday in their first joint news conference in months, make no mistake about it: There were some significant differences in their messaging as COVID-19 cases surge to record numbers and as federal employees, funds and resources are being brought in to try to ensure the state’s health care system does not collapse.
Most of those differences centered around wearing — or not wearing — masks to slow the spread of the virus.
Reeves, the Republican governor, said that there is not much reason for people who are vaccinated to wear masks.
“When you’re looking at trying to get additional people vaccinated, telling them, ‘Yeah, you should get vaccinated, but you are still going to have to do all the same things,’ it tends to curb vaccinations,” Reeves said during Friday’s 90-minute news conference in his office in the Sillers office building. “There should be some reward for having people get vaccinated.”
Dobbs, a veteran physician, said there are multiple reasons for a vaccinated person to wear a mask in certain situations. The physician gave the example of a mother and son he tested. The son, who had not been vaccinated, was symptomatic and tested positive for COVID-19. Dobbs said the mother, who had been vaccinated, had no symptoms. She felt fine.
But he said the mother had “one of the highest viral loads I had seen. Totally asymptomatic. It is these asymptomatic carrier situations that make us worry a little bit.”
More than 90% of people, according to scientific data cited by Dobbs, do not get sick from the coronavirus if vaccinated. But Dobbs speculated that a much larger number — maybe as high as one-third of the vaccinated — could be asymptomatic carriers.
Dobbs said he believes people should avoid indoor crowds when possible, but should wear masks when indoors around people whose vaccination status is unknown.
He said if he had the opportunity to go to Washington, D.C., he would probably go to an outdoor ballgame. “But I am not going to a bar,” Dobbs added. “There is a way to be safe, but also to do stuff. I think the phase we are in now is the phase of doing things safely.”
Reeves told a reporter wearing a mask during the news conference if he was worried about infecting someone else he should not leave his home. Standing just feet from the state’s top doctor, Reeves claimed the reporter was “virtue signaling.”
Reeves’ aversion to any mention of masks began last month at the Neshoba County Fair political speakings where he called “foolish” the current U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommendation for everyone, including the vaccinated, to mask up indoors when the vaccination status of everyone in the room is not known.
The CDC recommendation is essentially the same as what Dobbs has said.
“Mask in public and use commonsense,” Dobbs said on Friday.
Reeves conceded that there might be “a marginal benefit” to wearing a mask. “The vaccine, if it works, it works… Maybe wearing a mask is a little bit better,” Reeves said.
Based on that belief, the governor said he had no intention of issuing any mask mandates. He reiterated that he would leave it up to local school districts to determine whether to mandate masks.
Reeves said there are risks associated with most functions in life.
“What each individual needs to decide is the level of risk they are willing to assume,” Reeves said.
When asked, Dobbs said he did believe wearing masks in the schools curtailed the spread of the coronavirus.
On the issue of the vaccine, Reeves, as he has in the past, told people he had been vaccinated and believed other should also take the vaccination.
“We believe the vaccine is effective. We believe it is safe,” the governor said.
Of the vaccine, Dobbs said, “We have confirmed 7,500 plus deaths from COVID (in Mississippi) and zero from the vaccine.”
“There is so much misinformation out there,” Dobbs added, saying people in 100 years will say of the current COVID-19 debate, “Oh my gosh, what a colossal communications failure because we allowed the misinformation to drown out reality.”
John Rounsaville, appointed by Gov. Tate Reeves in January to lead the Mississippi Development Authority, is resigning effective Aug. 31, Reeves’ office announced in a short press release late Friday afternoon.
Reeves in the statement thanked Rounsaville for his service and said, “I wish John the best in his future endeavors.” The release said details regarding the search process will be announced in coming weeks.
Rounsaville in a statement in the press release said: “It has been a tremendous honor to serve Mississippi under the leadership of Governor Reeves. I am confident MDA is on a strong trajectory … With a young family and a new baby born last year, my wife and I believe it is time to pursue a new opportunity that will enable me to focus more on my family and spend less time traveling.”
MDA is the state’s lead economic and community development agency, and employs about 300 people. It works to recruit new businesses to the state and retain and expand existing industry and manages the state’s energy programs. MDA also promotes Mississippi as a tourism destination.
Rounsaville had replaced Glenn McCullough Jr., who served as MDA director under former Gov. Phil Bryant from 2015 through January of 2020.
Rounsaville previously served as state director for USDA Rural Development for the President Trump administration, a post he also held from 2006 to 2008 under President George W. Bush. Rounsaville served as deputy chief of staff and other roles for former U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering and as policy adviser to former Gov. Haley Barbour.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) is evaluating 19 bids from private contractors to provide the state with desperately needed medical staff.
During a press conference on Friday, Gov. Tate Reeves said the state hopes to put staff on the ground within the next week from one or more of the companies who submitted bids. The federal government will reimburse 100% of the cost for these services.
More than 2,000 medical professionals have left the field in Mississippi over the past year, and hospitals across the state are at a breaking point. MEMA Executive Director Stephen McCraney said these workers will be able to help these hospitals utilize units and beds they cannot currently.
“We don’t need to necessarily build a hospital in certain times, we need to fill the beds that we have,” McCraney said.
MEMA received requests for 1,378 additional healthcare workers from 73 different hospitals across the state. It’s unclear how many of these will be supplied through those private contracts. The requested staff includes: 65 physicians, 920 nurses, 41 certified registered nurse anesthetists, 59 nurse practitioners, 34 physician assistants, 239 respiratory technicians, and 20 emergency medical technician paramedics.
If this staffing level can be provided, 771 med-surge beds and 235 ICU beds would be opened up, according to Reeves.
McCraney said that there is no deadline on the state’s ability to utilize these private contracts, noting that MEMA still has contractors on the ground from the state’s response to Hurricane Katrina. They will contract with additional private sector partners to cycle out contracted staff if necessary.
“Whatever it takes to get this pandemic across the finish line, that’s what we’re gonna do,” McCraney said… “There’s only so long that an ICU nurse can stay on target for seven days a week. Gotta give them a rest period, so we’ve factored all of that in, and we’re ready to go.”
McCraney also said the federal government had approved a request for 150 additional ventilators. The state has also submitted a request for 10 monoclonal antibody therapy teams to treat positive COVID-19 patients to try and keep them from being hospitalized.
Though some requests from the state have already been approved and others are pending, one has been denied: a request for the military hospital ship, the USNS Comfort, and the 550 medical personnel on board to be sent to Mississippi.
Reeves said FEMA administrators told him on Thursday that the ship served very few patients in New York City when it was docked there early in the pandemic. Still, Reeves said the request was more about the medical personnel on board than the actual facilities on the ship itself.
“We would welcome any of the 550 healthcare professionals that are on that particular facility that the federal government would like to send us,” Reeves said.
As the delta variant of COVID-19 continues its surge across the state and Mississippi’s hospital system faces imminent failure, medical experts and some elected officials continue to urge Mississippians to get vaccinated. Vaccines, according to medical researchers, are nearly as effective against the delta variant as the original strain and minimize the chance of infection and nearly eliminate the risks of developing serious illness.
According to Mississippi State Department of Health data, 83% of the people who died from COVID-19 from July 15 through Wednesday, were unvaccinated, while 17% were fully vaccinated people who experienced breakthrough infections, or infections when someone is fully vaccinated. During the same period, unvaccinated people made up 98% of the state’s cases and 89% of hospitalizations.
View our interactive graph of the vaccination status among people who have contracted, died of and/or been hospitalized due to COVID-19 or related complications since July 15.
Former state legislator Kathy Sykes and Alvin Chambliss, a civil rights attorney who litigated the historic Ayers v. Fordice case, will lead a march this Saturday, Aug. 14, to protest Mississippi’s treatment of its three public historically Black colleges and universities.
Under the coalition “March to Save HBCUs,” Sykes and Chambliss want to hold the Institutions of Higher Learning accountable for what they say is a broken promise two decades in the making.
“Since the Ayers v. Fordice settlement, the state of Mississippi has reneged on its obligation and promise to endow and fund the HBCUs in the ‘Magnolia State,’” a press release reads.
In 2002, the Institutions of Higher Learning, which oversees Mississippi’s eight public universities, settled Ayers, a class-action lawsuit that alleged the IHL board violated the Fourteenth Amendment by not providing adequate funds to the state’s HBCUs.
Per the terms of the settlement agreement, the IHL board was supposed to raise $35 million for a private endowment for the HBCUs by 2009.
Nearly 20 years after the suit was settled, the board has raised just $1 million.
“I’ve been in this fight a long time,” Chambliss said on a July Zoom call, the Mississippi Link reported. “They refuse to enforce the Brown v. Board of Education decision. They refuse to enforce the Ayers v. Fordice decision. … There are still policies that are harmful to Black students.”
Chambliss added that he believes the IHL’s current treatment of Jackson State University, Alcorn State University and Mississippi Valley State University is in violation of the Constitution.
“These institutions are needed now more than ever,” Sykes said, according to the Link. “Higher education opens the door to a better way of life for Black people.”
The march will begin at 9 a.m. at the Masonic Temple on J.R. Lynch Street, stop at the Mississippi State Capitol, and end at Smith Park in downtown Jackson.
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said he was moved to post on social media urging Mississippians to get vaccinated for COVID-19 after talking with hospital administrators throughout the state and hearing of their “heroic” efforts battling the coronavirus.
Hosemann recalled traveling to one hospital and hearing about a pregnant woman with COVID-19 on a ventilator. He said the infant was delivered, and doctors are optimistic that both mother and child would be OK. Then at another hospital he heard a similar story, but with the potential for a different outcome — the death of the mother without ever getting to hold the newborn.
“We are the most Christian state, the most giving state money-wise, most welcoming state…yet we are the least vaccinated state” even though with the vaccination “we could protect our families and our citizens,” he told Mississippi Today in an interview on Friday.
Thursday’s social media post wasn’t the first time Hosemann publicly advocated for vaccination. Hosemann, who had the coronavirus in the summer of 2020 and got vaccinated soon after he was eligible, paid for a radio ad that ran in May to honor the work of the Mississippi Guard in responding to the pandemic. In that ad he urged people to get vaccinated as a way to honor the National Guard’s efforts.
As the COVID-19 cases have surged in recent weeks to record numbers, filing hospital beds, Hosemann said he decided to do the social media post this week as another effort to urge people to get vaccinated.
In the video he said medical providers combatting COVID “were all exhausted both physically and financially. This may be the medical community’s finest hour….To determine why this last wave occurred unfortunately we only have to look in the mirror.”
He added, “Please receive the free vaccine. Protect your family, your friends and your fellow Mississippians.”
Hosemann said he and senators have been working on possible solutions for some of the issues facing health care providers. One of the biggest issues is that Mississippi nurses can sign 13-week contracts in other states making as much as $120 per hour. Hosemann said Mississippi hospitals cannot compete with the financial incentive being offered in other parts of the country. He said the Legislature could step in with financial incentives to encourage nurses not to leave the state.
In an earlier session, the Legislature appropriated $10 million to help hospitals add intensive care units and negative pressure rooms to treat COVID-19 patients. He said such a program might need to be revisited.
When asked if he wanted Gov. Tate Reeves to call a special session to address some of those issues. Hosemann said, “I have talked with Speaker (Philip) Gunn. We want to be prepared if the governor does decide to move on this.”
The governor has the sole authority to call a special session.
Looking up at the underside of Walter Anderson’s boat, you can almost visualize the miles of water the artist once traversed in his many trips to Horn Island. From this fish-like point of view, you take on the perspective of some of the artist’s favorite subjects. Known for his unique depictions of animal and plant life, looking at the works of Walter Anderson can prompt viewers to see the world a little differently.
As art museums rebound from 2020, seven art institutions across the state are inviting in-state and out-of-state visitors alike to experience perspective-shifting art for free through the month of August.
Go to visitmississippi.org/artmuseums to gain entry to all seven institutions. With your free pass, you can visit one museum or experience all seven.
For travelers who want to do it all, here’s a sample path with stops at all seven participating institutions:
Start Here: Start out with a visit to the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs. Displaying a large collection of drawings, painting and prints by the famed artist, the museum also features the “Little Room,” which was painted floor-to-ceiling by Walter Anderson.
Stop 2: Make the short drive west to Biloxi to see the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art, which houses pottery made by George Ohr, the “Mad Potter of Biloxi.” The museum campus includes unique buildings designed by architect Frank Gehry and the Pleasant Reed House, a replica of home built in the 1880s and 1890s by an emancipated African American man. The original home was lost in Hurricane Katrina.
Stop 3: After you have taken in the two coastal museums, travel north to Laurel, home of the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art and the scene of the HGTV show, Home Town.
Mississippi’s first art museum, the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art contains a large collection of Native American baskets, 19th and 20th century paintings, British Georgian silver and Japanese prints. The museum also hosts exhibitions of contemporary artwork. While there, pick up a brochure for the walking tour of Laurel’s Historic district, where you might spot some homes that have been featured on TV.
Stop 4: About an hour’s drive from Laurel, the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience, known as “The MAX,” in Meridian is an interactive, modern museum dedicated to shining a light on Mississippi’s enduring creative legacy. With digital and hands-on experiences, visitors take a self-directed journey through Mississippi’s creative roots and culture.
Stop 5: Head east toward Jackson to take in the Mississippi Museum of Art, the largest art museum in the state. Along with its sizable permanent collection of art, the museum also boasts a 1.2-acre greenspace known as The Art Garden, which includes a splash pad. Currently, the museum is exhibiting the Mississippi Invitational, featuring the works of 42 Mississippi artists.
Stop 6: Venture north to visit the Museum of the Mississippi Delta in Greenwood, where you’ll learn all about the history of this unique region, its landscape, agrarian roots and cultural legacy. The museum houses a large collection of Native American artifacts, fossils from prehistoric times, local military artifacts and one of the Delta’s most extensive collections of regional art.
Final Stop: Make the short drive to Cleveland to view the Mathews-Sanders Sculpture Garden on the campus of Delta State University. Outside of the Bologna Performing Arts Center, dozens of sculptures are on display, and others dot the campus of Delta State, the GRAMMY Museum Mississippi and downtown Cleveland.
However you decide to experience Mississippi’s art institutions, the art of travel is within reach this August.
Get your free admission here. Campaign partners include Mississippi Arts Commission and Visit Mississippi.
*Note: COVID-19 mitigation efforts are in place at participating institutions.
The University of Mississippi Medical Center is so overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients during the state’s worst wave of cases that it is constructing a field hospital in a parking garage. This is necessary to increase capacity, as UMMC is completely out of staffed intensive care unit beds. The medical center is just one of the many medical facilities across the state on the verge of collapse as the delta variant causes a level of need the state’s healthcare workers cannot meet.
Mississippi Today photojournalist Vickie King visited the facility to view how officials are prepping the area for an influx of COVID patients.
Photo Captions:
UMMC staffers arrive with beds to be used for the COVID-19 field hospital currently being set up in the basement of Parking Garage B, Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021.
View of the outside of the COVID-19 field hospital in the basement of Parking Garage B at UMMC.
“We shouldn’t be here,” said State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs, inside a COVID-19 Field Hospital currently being set up at UMMC as the state’s cases of the coronavirus surge.
Federal employees made up of doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists and paramedics sent to staff the field hospital at UMMC set up equipment in the basement of Parking Garage B, Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021 in Jackson. UMMC needed the help because of a lack of resources during a recent surge in coronavirus cases.
Beds to be used for the COVID-19 field hospital currently being set up in the basement of Parking Garage B.
UMMC Associate Vice Chancellor Dr. Alan Jones discusses the need for the COVID-19 Field Hospital.
Rick Hess, Jr. heads the federal resource team sent to staff the COVID-19 field hospital at UMMC in Jackson, Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021. UMMC announced it is out of beds and the tent hospital located in the basement of Parking Garage B will serve coronavirus patients.
