A latest poll shows that Governor Tate Reeves’ popularity is at 34%.

READ MORE: Gov. Tate Reeves’ approval rating tanked as COVID-19 pandemic worsened, poll shows

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Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

Gov. Tate Reeves discusses the state’s rollout of COVID-19 vaccines during an early January 2021 press conference.

Gov. Tate Reeves, after almost one full year as the state’s chief executive, currently has a 34% approval rating and a 49% disapproval rating, according to a poll released Tuesday.

As the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have worsened in Mississippi, Reeves’ popularity has tumbled, according to the Millsaps College/Chism Strategies poll. In June, the same pollster found that 50% of Mississippi voters approved of the job performance of Reeves, while 28% disapproved.

The poor marks for Reeves are almost certainly affected by his perceived handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the poll released Tuesday, 37% of voters believe his management of the pandemic has been excellent/good, 26% say it has just been fair, and 35% say it has been poor/totally unacceptable.

Reeves, the sole elected official who can issue statewide safety orders like mask mandates and crowd size limits, has taken a piecemeal response in recent weeks. He’s received criticism from all quarters, including from those wanting stringent public health regulations and those who believe government should be hands-off.

Meanwhile, the seven-day average of COVID-19 cases in state has grown by nearly eight times since June, and every measurable virus statistic has considerably worsened. 

Reeves’ low approval rating stands in contrast to the high approvals of his predecessor, Republican Gov. Phil Bryant. In Bryant’s final quarter as governor in late 2019, he enjoyed one of the highest approval ratings of any governor in the nation: 55% of voters approved of his performance, and 25% disapproved.

Other findings from the poll released on Tuesday:

• Mississippi voters are evenly divided on the state’s direction, with 35% saying the state is moving in the right direction, 39% in the wrong direction and 26% unsure. 
• Just 27% approve of the Mississippi Legislature’s performance, compared to 44% who disapprove and 29% who say they don’t have enough information to rate their work.
• Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann currently has a 39% approval rating, with nearly a quarter saying they disapprove. 37% did not have enough information to evaluate his performance.
• Voters are divided on the performance of Attorney General Lynn Fitch, with 33% approving, 34% disapproving and 32% lacking sufficient information about her work.
• 42% believe the measures taken by Mississippi’s state government have not gone far enough to stop the spread of COVID-19. 36% feel the measures have been appropriate, while just 16% say the state has gone too far already.
• Just over 42% favor eliminating the state’s income tax as proposed by Governor Reeves, a proposition opposed by 36% of voters. Another 22% remain unsure.

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Lawmakers are poised to ratify the new Mississippi state flag this week.  (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

The state Senate is expected on Wednesday to pass on to the governor final ratification of a new state flag — sans the divisive Confederate battle emblem that flew for 126 years.

The House on Monday voted 119-1 to accept the new “In God We Trust” Mississippi flag, after more than 70% of state voters approved it in November. The measure — the first bill of the 2021 legislative session, which began on Tuesday — cleared a Senate committee on Tuesday with no opposition.

A Senate floor vote on the bill is expected on Wednesday. If passed there, the bill would then move to the governor’s desk for signature or veto.

“This new flag boldly declares our trust in God, that we are all equal in his eyes …” said Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn, who for years was the lone statewide GOP leader advocating for changing the flag. “May God bless our efforts, and may God bless Mississippi as we set sail under this new flag.”

The Mississippi Legislature in June removed the old flag, which was adopted by racist lawmakers in 1894. It was the last in the nation to carry the divisive Confederate battle emblem. Lawmakers faced growing pressure from religious, business, sports and community leaders to remove the vestige of the state’s Jim Crow past from a flag flying over the state with the largest percentage population of Black residents.

TIMELINE: How Mississippi lawmakers removed the state flag.

READ MORE: Mississippi furls state flag with Confederate emblem after 126 years.

An appointed commission reviewed about 3,000 public submissions for new flag designs over the summer and in September chose the new design with a magnolia and stars — a combination of multiple submissions. Lawmakers had stipulated in June that the new design include the words In God We Trust and that it not include the Confederate battle emblem.

On Nov. 3, 71.3% of Mississippi voters approved the new design in an up-or-down vote. But lawmakers still must put the design into the state lawbooks.

The measure the House passed Tuesday includes the description:

“The Magnolia is the state flower of Mississippi and is a symbol that has long represented our state and the hospitality of our citizens, and also represents our state’s sense of hope and rebirth as the Magnolia often blooms more than once and has a long blooming season.  The circle of twenty stars represents Mississippi as the twentieth state of the United States of America and the circle is anchored at the top by the gold five-point star, which represents our first peoples, the indigenous Native American tribes of the land that would become Mississippi, and also represents Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia/Oceania and Europe, which are the five inhabited areas of the world from which all Mississippians originate.  The color blue in the center panel echoes the blue of the American flag, representing vigilance, justice and perseverance, and the red bars represent the hardiness and valor of our citizens.  The gold bars and the gold stamen of the Magnolia represent the rich cultural history of Mississippi, specifically the visual arts, literature, music and performing arts that have originated in our state.”

House lawmakers also approved an appropriation of $10,000 for the Department of Finance and Administration to buy new flags for state buildings this year.

Longtime state Rep. Alyce Clarke, D-Jackson, on Tuesday said, “I’m elated we finally did it.”

“Maybe we are headed in the right direction,” Clarke said. “We are doing the right thing here.”

House Democratic Leader Robert Johnson of Natchez said: “I still can’t stop thinking that more than 70% of the people of the state of Mississippi passed this flag — even after 27 years in the Legislature that amazes me.

“I’m hopeful this marks a change in Mississippi, not just of a symbol, but of people coming together to meet the needs of all the people of Mississippi,” Johnson said.

T.J. Taylor, who served on the commission appointed to pick a new flag design, was at the Capitol on Tuesday and said lawmakers finalizing the flag feels like closure.

“Hopefully now it’s just a formality, after voters came out and supported it like they did,” Taylor said. “… I feel like this is closure, that we can move on and not have to worry about it any more.”

But one group, Let Mississippi Vote, hopes to overturn the Legislature’s removal of the old flag. It has mounted a petition drive to place on the ballot — as early as 2022 — an initiative that would allow voters to restore the 1894 flag, or select other options including the In God We Trust flag.

On Tuesday, Rep. Steve Horne, R-Meridian, cast the lone no vote on the new flag. He was unavailable for comment after the vote. Rep. Dan Eubanks, R-Walls, voted present.

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COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 1,767 new cases

By Mississippi Today | January 5, 2021

We are bringing you the latest COVID-19 Mississippi trends with daily case, death and hospitalization updates, as well as testing data charts and other helpful interactive maps and graphs.

This page was last updated Tuesday, January 5:

New cases: 1,767 | New Deaths: 91

Total Hospitalizations: 1,432

Total cases:225,444| Total Deaths: 4,975

Mask Mandates | On Sept. 30, Gov. Tate Reeves ended the statewide mask mandate order, originally issued Aug. 4. Since then, he has added a total of 78 individual county mask mandates, covering half of the state. State health officials encourage widespread masking and credit the original mandate with helping cases improve after a steep summer spike. View the full list of COVID-19 orders here.

All data and information reported by the Mississippi State Department of Health as of 6 p.m. yesterday

Weekly update: Wednesday, December 16

By Alex Rozier

On Tuesday Mississippi hit a new record with the seven-day average for cases, reaching 2,196. After going nine months without reporting 2,000 cases in a day, the state has reached that point nine times in just the 16 days of December so far. 

On Dec. 9, Mississippi also hit a new high for total hospitalizations on the rolling average, surpassing the summer peak. The state had already reached a new high for confirmed hospitalizations at the end of November, but hadn’t yet for the total tally, which includes suspected cases as well.

As seen in MSDH’s illness onset chart, the record for most illnesses in a day — Dec. 11, with 2,442 — is within the last two-week period, meaning those numbers could still go up.  

Mississippi’s present rise in cases mirrors the national surge, as the state currently has the 26th most new cases per capita. According to the Harvard Global Health Institute tracker, every state except Vermont is now in the “red zone” (recording over 25 daily new cases per 100,000 people). 

The health department reports that 148,466 people are presumed covered as of Dec. 13.

Click through the links below to view our interactive charts describing the trends around the coronavirus in Mississippi:

View our COVID-19 resource page for more information about coronavirus in Mississippi.

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Donal Washington

Donal Washington

After schools closed in early March 2020, Donal Washington, 16, looked forward to what he hoped would be a normal upcoming school year playing sports and socializing with peers.

But not long after the doors closed, he suffered a tremendous loss. In July, his mother died of pancreatic cancer, he said. About a month later his school, Leland High School announced it would reopen virtually due to a spike in COVID-19 cases. All sports were cancelled until further notice.

“That was kind of hard for me because we couldn’t really have a funeral for her. And it’s kind of hard navigating through school,” the 11th grader said. “This is like my first time without my mom being in the picture.”

Washington, an honors student coping with his mother’s death and little social interactions, felt unmotivated to do his work. He said he did not learn as much as he would in a traditional school setting. 

Isolated from immediate family, friends and teachers, Washington hoped school could bridge the social divide. Instead, the coronavirus pandemic amplified the problems, such as failing internet connection and assigned busy work. This meant he could not reach teachers for assistance on assignments, or stay connected during virtual classes.

“It’s harder doing virtual. When we have work to be done … there’s something wrong with the internet either at home or at the school. Sometimes we don’t get as much learning time,” Washington said. “In some of the classes we don’t have teachers. They just give us work.”

As a coping mechanism, he took comfort in learning new skills, picking up old hobbies, talking with siblings out of state and spending time with his father and stepmother.

With students around the state scheduled to return to school this month, Mississippi Today recently spoke with several high school students who shared similar stories of isolation, loss and resilience as they navigated through their first semester of school during a pandemic.

Washington, like other students living in rural parts of the state, experienced connectivity issues which are a hindrance to online learning.

Thousands of other students enrolled in virtual learning struggle to engage, connect and learn through online instruction although the Mississippi Department of Education worked last summer and fall to ensure all students had access to technology and devices. 

Harold Rhodes

Harold Rhodes

Harold Rhodes, a 12th grade star athlete at Jefferson Davis County High School, also faces this issue. He said he can’t complete school work sometimes because he lives in Bassfield, a rural area with strained service. He said he also feared the lack of exposure in sports because a limited football season could cost him a sports scholarship. 

“We used to travel around the state down here to get exposure and to get better. And I didn’t get to do much of that this summer because of COVID. So now I’m just playing sports down here at my school,” Rhodes, who plays tight end, said. In addition, Rhodes plays basketball, baseball and runs track.

Once the season began, Rhodes’ worries of being recruited calmed. College coaches still reach out, he said.

For Bethany Miller, a junior at Yazoo County High School, her responsibilities have doubled. She attended school on a hybrid model before her school building closed due to a COVID-19 outbreak. At home, she must complete her school assignments virtually and take care of her 5-year-old sister while her parents are working.

Bethany Allen

Bethany Miller

She said she feels alone and stressed at times because of her new responsibilities, and she can’t get immediate feedback with classwork or bond with classmates in or outside of school. 

“We have a schedule at school where we have to eat in our class, then it’s six feet a part at all times. That’s our lives,” Miller said before her district switched to virtual learning. “It takes a village because I know my mom wants to help out. She wants to be able to help my little sister and be there, but right now the thing is, it’s hectic.” 

Students who spoke with Mississippi Today said support from immediate family and the hope for a “normal” life helped them get through a difficult semester.

But the chances of a return to normal life are slim right now. COVID-19 infections continue to set new peaks statewide and nationally, and a vaccine likely won’t be widely available to the general public until later this year.

READ MORE: Here’s what we know about COVID-19 vaccines in Mississippi

Looking towards the future, students are hopeful. 

Washington wants to travel more.

Miller wants to spend time with her friends that are seniors.

Rhodes wants to “go back to our normal lives.”

The post How Mississippi students are coping during the pandemic appeared first on Mississippi Today.

• Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann, who had a severe case of COVID-19, wants to delay the 2021 Legislative Session. Speaker Philip Gunn, who had a milder case, wants to go forward with the session.

The post Marshall Ramsey: The Rodeo Comes To Town appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

Lois Moore, Mississippi State Department of Health immunization program community resource nurse, prepares to inject Mississippi Medical Association President Dr. W. Mark Horne with the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccination in December.

Mississippi will push up its distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to residents 75 and older to next week, health officials and Gov. Tate Reeves announced on Monday. The state will then begin distributing doses to those 65 and older the following week.

In its first phase of distribution, the state is currently administering doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to healthcare workers and long-term care residents. Originally, those 75 and older were scheduled to receive the vaccine in mid-January, and those 65 and older were scheduled for February.

TIMELINE: Here’s when you expect to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in Mississippi. 

The state health department is now operating 18 vaccination drive-thru locations across the state. Those eligible must make an appointment on the health department’s website — which also includes a full list of locations and schedules — or can call 877-978-6453 for more information.

Reeves also clarified the number of vaccines Mississippi has received and distributed. The state has so far distributed about 165,000 doses, and about 86,000 of those have gone towards the state’s enrolled providers. The remaining 78,000 are being distributed through a partnership between the federal government and pharmacies CVS and Walgreens to vaccinate long-term care residents.

Among those vaccines in the hands of the state’s providers, about 23,000, or roughly a quarter, had been administered as of last week, while only about 2% of doses provided through the pharmacies have been administered.

State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs added that about 20,000 doses will go out to private clinics this week to help expand distribution.

Meanwhile, the spread of the coronavirus continues to reach new highs in the state, and Dobbs said he expects that trend to continue as post-holiday cases begin to be reported to MSDH.

On New Year’s Eve, 357 patients were in intensive care units with COVID-19, a new record for the state. The seven-day average for hospitalizations continues to climb after reaching a new peak last month, and the seven-day average for new cases saw a new high of 2,239 on Sunday.

The post Older Mississippians will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccines next week appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today

Lois Moore, Mississippi State Department of Health immunization program community resource nurse, inoculates Dr. Timothy Quinn, CEO of Quinn Healthcare in Ridgeland, with the Pfizer-BioNtech covid vaccination in December 2020.

Mississippi is currently in its first phase of COVID-19 vaccine distribution, which targets healthcare personnel and residents and staff at long-term care facilities.

Health officials and Gov. Tate Reeves announced on Monday that people 75 and older may be eligible to receive the vaccine starting the week of Jan. 11.

The tiered phases of vaccine distribution in Mississippi were announced by the Mississippi State Department of Health on Monday. The chart below lists the phases and general timeline of when Mississippians may become eligible to receive the vaccine, though health officials warned that the exact timing of these phases depends on how many doses Mississippi receives from drug manufacturers.

READ MORE: Older Mississippians will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccines next week.

Appointments to receive the vaccine at the state’s 18 drive-thru clinics must be scheduled online, and both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines which are being administered in Mississippi require two doses. The Moderna vaccine requires recipients to receive their second dose in 28 days, and the Pfizer vaccine requires recipients to return in 21 days, according to the Mississippi Department of Health.

Learn more about how to schedule your vaccine here, or call 877-978-6453.

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Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith arrives for the Senate Republican luncheon in Hart Building on Thursday, June 4, 2020. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, Mississippi’s junior U.S. senator, remains mum on whether she plans to join at least 12 of her Republican colleagues in challenging the presidential victory of former Vice President Joe Biden.

Congress will meet in joint session on Wednesday to certify the electoral votes from the states. Biden, a Democrat, received 306 of the 538 elector votes from the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Though the certification of the electoral votes from the states is normally a formality, the law allows Congress to reject them and theoretically select the new president.

A group of House and Senate Republicans — ardent supporters of Republican President Donald Trump, who has for weeks pushed disproven theories about widespread election fraud — indicated last week they will challenge those electoral votes from certain states Biden won. To be successful, they must garner a majority vote in both chambers.

It does not appear the Republican objectors, based on national reports, have the votes in either chamber to be successful.

Hyde-Smith, who was sworn in on Sunday to a six-year term after winning re-election in November, did not answer questions from Mississippi Today about her position on the effort and has not publicly discussed how she may vote on Wednesday.

Sen. Roger Wicker, Mississippi’s senior U.S. senator, indicated after the states certified their electoral votes in early December that he would accept those results.

“The electoral college vote makes it clear that Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States. I am obviously disappointed in the outcome, and I know many Mississippians feel the same way. Nevertheless, we must respect the constitutional process and move on,” Wicker said at the time.

An aide said over the weekend that Wicker stands by those comments.

And after Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri became the first senator to announce an intent to challenge the results last week, Wicker told Politico: “I’m going to vote to certify the election. I don’t think it’s a good idea and I don’t understand (Hawley’s) reasoning.”

U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo, who represents the 4th congressional district, is the only member of Mississippi’s congressional delegation to have announced his intent to challenge the results.

“I cannot vote to certify the results of an election in certain states that millions of Americans and I do not wholeheartedly trust,” Palazzo said in a statement.

He claimed that officials in many states won by Biden violated the Constitution by changing election procedures without those changes first being approved by their legislators. Judges, including those appointed by Trump, who lost the election by more than seven million votes, have rejected those arguments.

Mississippi’s two other Republican U.S. House members did not respond to recent requests for comment from Mississippi Today. But both Michael Guest of the 3rd congressional district and Trent Kelly of the 1st congressional district acknowledged after the certification of the electors in early December that Biden would be the next president.

“The electoral college has cast the final and deciding vote for Joe Biden. My prayers are with him as he prepares to assume the office of president of the United States,” Guest said in a statement.

READ MORE: Several Mississippi Republicans among those seeking to throw out millions of ballots.

Kelly told the Daily Journal in Tupelo: “It appears that Joe Biden is the president-elect. I have done exactly what I said I would do. I have supported President Trump and followed every possible legal remedy to ensure the election results are valid. At this time, there does not appear to be a viable and legal remedy left to pursue.

“Elections and the electoral college, as well as states’ right to certify the electorate, are an integral part of all our elections dating back to our founders,” Kelly continued. “Although I do not like the results of the current election, the courts and the states have spoken. Unless there is an unforeseen, valid legal challenge, I intend to support the results of the electoral college.”

Mississippi’s sole Democrat in the congressional delegation — Rep. Bennie Thompson of the 2nd district — questioned the process of some Republicans challenging the results.

“How can any member of Congress challenge the legitimacy of Trump’s defeat when they were elected from the SAME ballot?” Thompson said on social media.

Mississippi’s Republicans in the congressional delegation have been strong allies of Trump for most of his tenure. The Republican president campaigned extensively for Hyde-Smith when she won a special election in 2018 to replace longtime Sen. Thad Cochran, who stepped down for health reasons.

Many Republicans serving in state offices have also been supportive of Trump’s efforts to have the votes of tens of millions of voters thrown out and allow Republican state legislatures to appoint a different slate of electors loyal to Trump.

Those supporting those efforts have included Gov. Tate Reeves, Secretary of State Michael Watson and Attorney General Lynn Fitch. In addition, 30 state legislators have signed a letter asking for an investigation into allegations of fraud made by Trump.

READ MORE: Mississippi electors vote Trump, top officials cast doubt about election results in other states.

In addition to multiple judges rejecting the allegations of fraud, former Attorney General William Barr, another Trump appointee, who early on asked his Justice Department to look for fraud, has said fraud did not occur on a large enough scale to impact Biden’s sizable victory. Soon after making that statement, Barr stepped down from his post as head of the federal law enforcement apparatus.

Trump recently was recorded during an hourlong conversation trying to pressure the Georgia secretary of state to arbitrarily award him additional votes.

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COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 1,616 new cases

By Mississippi Today | January 4, 2021

We are bringing you the latest COVID-19 Mississippi trends with daily case, death and hospitalization updates, as well as testing data charts and other helpful interactive maps and graphs.

This page was last updated Monday, January 4:

New cases: 1,616 | New Deaths: 13

Total Hospitalizations: 1,456

Total cases:223,667| Total Deaths: 4,884

Mask Mandates | On Sept. 30, Gov. Tate Reeves ended the statewide mask mandate order, originally issued Aug. 4. Since then, he has added a total of 78 individual county mask mandates, covering half of the state. State health officials encourage widespread masking and credit the original mandate with helping cases improve after a steep summer spike. View the full list of COVID-19 orders here.

All data and information reported by the Mississippi State Department of Health as of 6 p.m. yesterday

Weekly update: Wednesday, December 16

By Alex Rozier

On Tuesday Mississippi hit a new record with the seven-day average for cases, reaching 2,196. After going nine months without reporting 2,000 cases in a day, the state has reached that point nine times in just the 16 days of December so far. 

On Dec. 9, Mississippi also hit a new high for total hospitalizations on the rolling average, surpassing the summer peak. The state had already reached a new high for confirmed hospitalizations at the end of November, but hadn’t yet for the total tally, which includes suspected cases as well.

As seen in MSDH’s illness onset chart, the record for most illnesses in a day — Dec. 11, with 2,442 — is within the last two-week period, meaning those numbers could still go up.  

Mississippi’s present rise in cases mirrors the national surge, as the state currently has the 26th most new cases per capita. According to the Harvard Global Health Institute tracker, every state except Vermont is now in the “red zone” (recording over 25 daily new cases per 100,000 people). 

The health department reports that 148,466 people are presumed covered as of Dec. 13.

Click through the links below to view our interactive charts describing the trends around the coronavirus in Mississippi:

View our COVID-19 resource page for more information about coronavirus in Mississippi.

The post COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 1,616 new cases appeared first on Mississippi Today.