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The Jackson Public Schools football regular season doesn’t start until next week, but already the Jim Hill Tigers are 1-0.

How’s that?

JPS coordinated a COVID-19 vaccination drive among its football-playing high schools recently, and Jim Hill won with more than 75% of its athletes now vaccinated, up from below 40% before the competition. Jim Hill won $1,000 to go into its football program.

“We can’t mandate, but we can educate,” said Jim Hill head coach Jermaine Bryant. “We are constantly stressing to our students and their parents the importance of taking all possible precautions in order to play a football season. We want to play all our games.”

They did not play any last year — neither did any of the other six JPS high schools. In mid-August last year, JPS announced that all fall sports had been canceled due to the pandemic.

Despite the success of the vaccination drive, JPS — as well as all Mississippi high school football teams — face huge obstacles to play anything resembling a complete schedule this fall.

On Aug. 20 of last year, Mississippi reported 894 new cases of COVID-19. On the same date this year, there were a record 5,048 new cases. What’s more, the delta variant appears much more dangerous for young people.

Daryl Jones, the JPS athletic director, Thursday acknowledged the challenges but said the school district is doing all it can to have in-person classes and as normal a football season as possible.

“We are encouraging all athletes and coaches to get vaccinated,” Jones said “Those that don’t must submit to weekly testing. If they’re going to play football, or going to be in the band or going to be a cheerleader, they must submit to weekly testing if they are not vaccinated.”

All football players and coaches present at the press conference Thursday evening at Forest Hill High wore masks, taking them off only when photos were made.

Jim Hill’s Isiah Terrell was one of those players, an 11th grader, who packs 350 pounds on his six-foot frame with legs as thick as tree trunks and arms nearly as massive. Terrell played as a ninth grader, when the Tigers finished 2-9, but missed an entire season last year. He said he was fully vaccinated long before the current JPS vaccination drive.

“I just want to play,” Terrell said. “We are all hungry to play.”

Terrell said he and his teammates met in small groups during the last school year to run, lift weights and try to remain in football-playing shape. He said they stayed in touch using social media.

He was asked how difficult it has been to get back into the routine of two-hour practices in the Mississippi August heat after missing an entire season.

“It hasn’t been that hard,” he said. “When you have a passion about this thing called football, it’s actually easy.”

Nevertheless, pandemic or not, JPS coaches face an enormous task in preparing teams to play, especially when they face teams from outside the district who never stopped playing.

Jones, the athletic director, knows that. “It’s gonna be tough, especially the first few games,” said Jones, a former coach himself and the son of former Alcorn coach Cardell Jones. “But remember, they still worked out, still watched film. If they managed their time well, they should be prepared.”

Nobody faces a more difficult task than Murrah, Jackson’s only Class 6A school. Murrah, 1-10 in 2019 and idle last year, faces a murderous schedule that includes many of the state’s largest, most powerful football programs. Indeed, beginning Sept. 24, Murrah faces Oxford, Germantown, Grenada, Starkville, Tupelo, Madison Central and Clinton. That’s the high school version of playing in the SEC West.

Said Marcus Gibson, the Murrah coach, “The issue is going to be calming them down, and understanding the game within the game. Gotta get them to focus on each play. They are prepared because through this pandemic, they have had to endure a multitude of starts and stops. The guys that are here, they’ve been through everything that we’ve been through, and it’s actually unified us quite a bit. If you are here with us now, it means you’ve been through all of it.”

And there’s still a long, long road ahead.

The post JPS determined to play football following fruitful vaccination drive appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Once again, Mississippi has made national news. Listen to Dr. Dobbs — don’t take cow medicine.

The post Marshall Ramsey: The Latest from Dr. Dobbs appeared first on Mississippi Today.

NextGen is a Mississippi Today project devoted to digging deep into the realities of why Mississippians stay or leave. Our survey asked Mississippi’s millennials and Gen Z about current issues facing the state and its capital, Jackson, including factors that have influenced their decision to relocate out of the state or not, what future changes they would like to see addressed and more.

View our Data Dive into some of the most popular and interesting answers of the 1,113 responses collected. Skip ahead to any of the questions using the buttons below.

Want to share this with friends or family? Download the sharable graphic here.

The post NextGen: Millennials and Gen-Z Mississippians respond to state issues appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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The University of Mississippi Medical Center announced an amendment to its vaccination policy on Friday that will require, with limited exceptions, employees and students to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by November. 

UMMC first announced a vaccine requirement on July 15, but it was not set to be triggered until the mRNA COVID vaccines received full approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Originally, staff and students were going to be allowed to wear an N95 mask until then, but that will no longer be a sufficient substitute for being vaccinated. 

Dr. Alan Jones, UMMC’s associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs and COVID-19 clinical response leader, announced the policy change in an internal letter on Friday and said that the revised policy was motivated by the recent increase in cases and hospitalizations sparked by the Delta variant.

“COVID-19 in Mississippi is a raging wildfire, but not everyone is helping throw water on the flames in their own backyard,” Jones wrote. “We, as an institution and as the workforce for the state’s leading health system, need to be a leader in this fight.”

In the internal memo, Jones cited this graph created by Financial Times with data from John Hopkins University that shows Mississippi is leading the world in new COVID-19 cases per capita.

“Taking steps to protect our patients is priority one. And having a fully vaccinated health care workforce is the only way to meet that standard,” Jones wrote.

The vaccination policy will be implemented across three phases. Managers and supervisors will be required to show proof of vaccination by Sept. 15, all other employees by Oct. 1 and students by Nov. 1. There will be a limited exemption policy, and any employee or student who wants a special accommodation must submit a request by Sept. 10.

Many colleges and universities across the country have already announced vaccination mandates for the coming school year, as have many health care providers and other employers. In Mississippi, UMMC is the first public higher ed institution to require the COVID-19 vaccine for students.

The delta variant has considerably increased the already high risks posed by the virus to unvaccinated people. Between July 20 and Aug. 16, 98% of the nearly 58,000 COVID-19 infections in Mississippi were among the unvaccinated. During that period, the same group also accounted for 89% of hospitalizations and 86% of deaths.

Dr. LouAnn Woodward, UMMC’s chief executive, gave a blunt speech on Tuesday where she decried the decision of so many Mississippians to decline the vaccine, despite the great protection to offers for them and their families.

“We as a state, as a collective, have failed to respond in a unified way to a common threat,” Woodward said. We have failed to use the tools that we have to protect ourselves, to protect our families, to protect our children, and to protect our state. “

There has been a significant uptick in vaccinations in Mississippi in recent weeks due to the havoc the delta variant is wreaking across the state and its healthcare system. However, despite the wide availability of vaccines and the risks posed by variants, Mississippi continues to rank last in the nation in the number of vaccine doses given per capita. With over 2.4 million shots administered, only 36% of Mississippians have been fully vaccinated.

The post UMMC to require students and employees receive COVID-19 vaccine by Nov. 1 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Jason Isbell, a Grammy-winning Americana/Roots artist, has canceled his Oct. 8 concert at the city-owned Brandon Amphitheater in Rankin County.

Isbell was one of the first of what is now a growing number of national musical acts to require a COVID-19 vaccination or proof of a negative coronavirus test for concert attendees.

On Friday afternoon, Southeastern Records, the label founded by Isbell, said on social media that Isbell and his band, The 400 Unit, would no longer be performing in Brandon.

“Unfortunately, the powers that be were not willing to comply with the band’s updated health and safety standards,” the label said on social media.

State Rep. Fred Shanks, R-Brandon, who also is the general manager for the Brandon Amphitheater, said earlier this week that the Brandon board of aldermen was working “with his people” to try to reach an agreement. Shanks could not be reached for comment Friday.

As COVID-19 cases soar across the country, Isbell has stated that his requirement of a vaccine or negative COVID-19 test within the past 48 hours to attend his concerts was initiated in an attempt to ensure public safety, and to try to prevent the shutdown of live music that occurred earlier in the pandemic before vaccines were available.

“I don’t think it’s fair to the audience or to the crews at the venues or to my crew to put people in a situation where they’re possibly risking their lives or taking the virus home to their kids, or they go to school and give it to other kids,” Isbell said in a lengthy interview with Rolling Stone. “It just didn’t feel right. I pride myself, and I have always prided myself, on being successful at a job where nobody gets hurt.”

He added, “That little thing that I love the most about the job that I have is the fact that it spreads something positive. I want to protect that. I don’t want to spread positive tests. I want to spread positive vibes.”

Isbell already has scheduled a concert for Oct. 8 at the Graceland Soundstage in Memphis to replace the Brandon show.

It is not clear whether the COVID-19 surge will impact any other shows in Brandon. Mississippi, per capita, currently has the most COVID-19 cases in the world, and venues in the state are following Isbell’s lead.

Duling Hall, located in the Fondren area of Jackson, has announced people will need a vaccination or a proof of a negative COVID-19 test within the past 48 hours to attend any of the multiple concerts scheduled for the venue starting Aug. 30.

“Implementing this measure will allow musicians to earn a living, our staff to be employed and live music to have a place in society again,” a Duling Hall social media statement said.

The Lyric Theater in Oxford has instituted the same guidelines for its shows.

The post Jason Isbell calls off Brandon concert because venue won’t require proof of COVID vaccine or negative test appeared first on Mississippi Today.

View a gallery of photos taken by photographers from University of Mississippi Medical Center Communications showing a behind-the-scenes look at the recent rise of COVID-19 cases inside the state’s largest medical center.

READ MORE OF OUR COVERAGE: ‘We are in trouble’: Dr. LouAnn Woodward delivers desperate plea to Mississippians as COVID crisis worsens

The post Photo gallery: UMMC and the rise of COVID-19 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) and Mississippi Department of Health (MSDH) plan to have the first groups of contract medical workers in hospitals across the state early next week. 

As of Friday, MEMA has received requests for additional healthcare workers from 60 hospitals across the state. MEMA plans to fulfill all of the requests it received and to deploy around 1,100 workers to these hospitals over the next eight weeks. MSDH is working to validate the licensing for around 10% of the workers it hopes to deploy, according to MEMA Executive Director Stephen McCraney. 

McCraney also said that once all 57 requests have been fulfilled, it would open up 680 med-surge beds and 212 ICU beds that are currently unstaffed.

“That’s going to take some pressure off of the medical system in which it currently finds itself because of this pandemic,” McCraney said. 

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.

The contract workers will cost around $8 million per week, but the federal government will reimburse 100% of those costs. Gov. Tate Reeves said the state typically receives a 50% advance for Stafford Act requests like this, and the state has the cash flow to cover the other half until that is also reimbursed. 

Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect how many hospitals requested additional workers and how many will be placed in Mississippi.

The post MEMA to deploy 1,100 contract healthcare workers over next two months appeared first on Mississippi Today.

According to Michael Hohl, Jackson Free Clinic outreach officer, by traveling to immigrant communities across the state, the JFC is helping to reduce barriers of access, such as transportation to clinics or having to take off work to travel or be vaccinated. He also said collaborating with the Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity and the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance, known and trusted organizations within Hispanic and immigrant communities in Mississippi, are vital to the success of the vaccination drives.

View our data on COVID-19 rates among Hispanic Mississippians below:

READ THE STORY: Mississippi groups host vaccine drives for immigrants

LEER: COVID-19 en Misisipi Guía de Vacunas

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The board for Natchez-Adams schools on Tuesday took the next step to require district employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccination.

The board voted unanimously to approve a four-part proposal that includes all employees getting vaccinated within a 30-day period of being notified and an incentive program to encourage vaccinations. The plan also proposes the board and administration meet with individuals who refuse to be vaccinated to determine next steps.

If Natchez-Adams moves forward with such a policy, it would be the first known school district in the state to do so. A spokeswoman for the Mississippi Department of Education said the department is not aware of any other school districts that have adopted such a policy.

Phillip West, the vice chair of the school board and a former state legislator and mayor of Natchez, introduced the proposal.

“We’re hoping the requirement of all employees to do this coming from the board should hopefully show them the seriousness of our actions as it relates to making sure that the kids are safe and their coworkers are safe,” said West.

West said the superintendent reported about 60% of employees in the district are already fully vaccinated.

Officials approved the proposal unanimously but have differing understandings of what it means. West said there are plans to draft a letter to employees early next week, thus starting the 30-day countdown for them to be vaccinated. But Board President Amos James said all the board did was vote unanimously to “look” at a policy.

Board attorney Bruce Kuehnle said the vote “put things in motion” for developing a comprehensive policy for the board to consider in the future.

West said he and other board members are still considering how the district will handle unvaccinated employees. One option is requiring them to submit to routine screening testing, he said.

“It’s going to be on a case-by-case basis once we see what the numbers (of employees who decline to be vaccinated) are that will dictate what kind of actions we will consider as a consequence,” said West.

Mississippi is currently facing a fourth wave of COVID infections, and the number of cases in children is rapidly rising. As of Thursday, 34% of Adams County residents were fully vaccinated, according to the Mississippi Department of Health. Forty-three percent had received at least one dose.

The county currently has test positivity rate of 23% in the week ending Aug. 14, the most recent for which data is available.

The city of Jackson recently announced it would require employees to be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing. Last month the University of Mississippi Medical Center announced a new vaccination policy that will eventually require employees and students to get fully vaccinated after the vaccines receive full authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The post Natchez-Adams School District poised to require employees to get COVID-19 vaccination appeared first on Mississippi Today.