State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs urged Mississippians in a Nov. 21 press conference to follow safety protocols as positive COVID-19 numbers spike.
Health officials are urging Mississippians to limit Thanksgiving gatherings as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations near record numbers ahead of the busy holiday.
The rise in COVID-19 cases in Mississippi — a surge only topped by the record spread in July and August — has persisted for nearly two straight months. On Saturday, the state health department reported a single-day record of 1,972 new cases. The seven-day rolling average reached 1,294 over the weekend, which is the highest mark since July 31.
The state health department also reported close to 900 total hospitalizations for people with the virus. That mark is at its highest point since Aug. 26. Health officials on Friday warned the public about managing spread in the cold months and during the holiday season.
“The number of critically ill patients we have in the hospital typically runs higher this time of year,” Timothy Moore, president of the Mississippi Hospital Association, said on Friday.
Moore noted that cases have risen after each major holiday weekend so far during the pandemic, most recently during Halloween.
“When you put an increase of COVID patients on top of that, then we’ve just exacerbated the problem moving forward,” he said.
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, November 23:
New cases: 699| New Deaths: 0
Total Hospitalizations: 999
Total cases: 143,879| Total Deaths: 3,676
Mask Mandates | On Sept. 30, Gov. Tate Reeves ended the statewide mask mandate order, originally issued Aug. 4. On Nov. 16, Reeves added seven counties to the state’s mask-wearing mandate. The 22 counties under a mandate until Dec. 11 are: Benton, Carroll, Covington, DeSoto, Forrest, Harrison, Hinds, Humphreys, Itawamba, Jackson, Lamar, Lauderdale, Leflore, Lee, Madison, Marshall, Montgomery, Pontotoc, Rankin, Tate, Winston, and Yalobusha. State health officials still encourage widespread masking and credit the mandate with helping cases improve after a steep summer spike. View the full list of COVID-19 orders here.
The seven-day new case average reached 1,143 today, a 54% increase since the start of November and the highest mark since Aug. 3.
The health department has reported over 8,000 new cases in the last week; apart from the record surge in July and August — which saw a 13-day stretch with over 8,000 new weekly cases — this is the only other time Mississippi has reached that threshold.
The number of hospitalizations have also begun to surge in the last month; using the seven-day rolling averages, total hospitalizations have increased by 32% in that time, ICU patients by 34%, and patients on ventilators by 36%.
Overall, the state’s ICUs are 84% full, with COVID-19 patients comprising 26% of all ICU beds. Sixteen of the state’s highest level COVID-care centers are at 86% capacity, and five of them — both Baptist Memorial Hospitals in Southaven and in the Golden Triangle, University of Mississippi Medical Center and St. Dominic in Jackson, and the Delta Regional Medical Center in Greenville — have zero ICU beds available.
According to the latest White House task force report, Mississippi’s test positivity rate is now 14%.
Within the last two weeks, Mississippi has moved from “orange” to “red” on the Global Health Institute’s risk level tracker, meaning it now averages over 25 daily new cases per 100,000 residents. Despite the rise in cases in the state, Mississippi now ranks 31st in new cases per capita, dropping from 26th a week ago.
Counties across the state saw large increases in cases over the last week. Choctaw County (15% increase), Stone County (12%), Lincoln County (12%), Attala County (12%) and Marshall County (12%) saw the biggest surges in that span.
MSDH reports that 116,683 people have recovered.
Click through the links below to view our interactive charts describing the trends around the coronavirus in Mississippi:
Secretary of State Michael Watson, in his first year as Mississippi’s chief elections official, joins Mississippi Today political reporters Bobby Harrison and Geoff Pender to discuss the state’s 2020 elections and possible reforms the state could implement in the future.
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 Sunday, November 22:
New cases: 779| New Deaths: 19
Total Hospitalizations: 999
Total cases: 143,180| Total Deaths: 3,676
Mask Mandates | On Sept. 30, Gov. Tate Reeves ended the statewide mask mandate order, originally issued Aug. 4. On Nov. 16, Reeves added seven counties to the state’s mask-wearing mandate. The 22 counties under a mandate until Dec. 11 are: Benton, Carroll, Covington, DeSoto, Forrest, Harrison, Hinds, Humphreys, Itawamba, Jackson, Lamar, Lauderdale, Leflore, Lee, Madison, Marshall, Montgomery, Pontotoc, Rankin, Tate, Winston, and Yalobusha. State health officials still encourage widespread masking and credit the mandate with helping cases improve after a steep summer spike. View the full list of COVID-19 orders here.
The seven-day new case average reached 1,143 today, a 54% increase since the start of November and the highest mark since Aug. 3.
The health department has reported over 8,000 new cases in the last week; apart from the record surge in July and August — which saw a 13-day stretch with over 8,000 new weekly cases — this is the only other time Mississippi has reached that threshold.
The number of hospitalizations have also begun to surge in the last month; using the seven-day rolling averages, total hospitalizations have increased by 32% in that time, ICU patients by 34%, and patients on ventilators by 36%.
Overall, the state’s ICUs are 84% full, with COVID-19 patients comprising 26% of all ICU beds. Sixteen of the state’s highest level COVID-care centers are at 86% capacity, and five of them — both Baptist Memorial Hospitals in Southaven and in the Golden Triangle, University of Mississippi Medical Center and St. Dominic in Jackson, and the Delta Regional Medical Center in Greenville — have zero ICU beds available.
According to the latest White House task force report, Mississippi’s test positivity rate is now 14%.
Within the last two weeks, Mississippi has moved from “orange” to “red” on the Global Health Institute’s risk level tracker, meaning it now averages over 25 daily new cases per 100,000 residents. Despite the rise in cases in the state, Mississippi now ranks 31st in new cases per capita, dropping from 26th a week ago.
Counties across the state saw large increases in cases over the last week. Choctaw County (15% increase), Stone County (12%), Lincoln County (12%), Attala County (12%) and Marshall County (12%) saw the biggest surges in that span.
MSDH reports that 116,683 people have recovered.
Click through the links below to view our interactive charts describing the trends around the coronavirus in Mississippi:
House Speaker Philip Gunn, left, and Gov. Tate Reeves listen as Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann speaks during a press conference on May 7, 2020.
What looked to be a ho-hum 2021 legislative session as a respite from the 2020 session — the longest in state history and dominated by COVID-19 — got more interesting this past week when Gov. Tate Reeves released his budget proposal.
The Republican Reeves proposed phasing out the state’s income tax, which accounts for more than 30% of state general fund revenue, or about $1.90 billion annually.
Reeves, in his first year as governor, spent most of the 2020 session being bullied by legislative leaders and reacting to their actions, such as their historic move — originally opposed by the governor — to replace the 126-year-old state flag that incorporated the Confederate battle emblem in its design.
The governor, in his budget plan, made it clear that he intends to be the hammer and not the nail in the 2021 session. And from a strategic standpoint, he might have selected a good issue on which to base that effort. After all, there is nothing from a policy standpoint a Republican politician likes better than a tax cut, and especially an income tax cut. And Republicans maintain the three-fifths majority needed in each chamber to pass a tax cut if they all stick together.
While the ongoing pandemic casts doubt on the economic outlook for the state and on the amount of revenue that will be generated to pay for vital services, Reeves argues that now is precisely the right time to enact a major tax cut.
“We as a state need to think big…” Reeves said. “What can we do to make a splash? What can we do to say to the world not only do we want you to invest capital here, we want you to move here.”
Eliminating the income tax would spur that growth, Reeves said.
House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, has long been a proponent of cutting the income tax. A matter of fact, during the previous term, then-Lt. Gov. Reeves, as the presiding officer of the Senate, blocked efforts of the House leaders to phase out the income tax.
Gunn has advocated for the state relying on use and excise taxes to fund state government. Mississippi, the poorest state in the nation, relies on both a 7% sales tax on retail items and a relatively modest income tax to generate the bulk of the revenue to fund state government.
During the 2019 gubernatorial campaign, then Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood, who lost to Reeves, proposed reducing the 7% sales tax on groceries, which is the highest state-imposed tax of its kind in the nation and disproportionately falls on the poor to pay.
Many Democrats and some Republicans in the state have for years tried to at least reduce the tax on food.
According to the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, Mississippi had the nation’s 24th most regressive tax structure in 2018. Regressive taxes place more of the burden on the poor. If the income tax, a progressive tax that generally requires the wealthy to pay more, is eliminated, that could result in a larger tax burden for the poor. Reeves maintains the income tax could be phased out without needing to increase other taxes to make up for the loss in revenue. The income tax cut would result in growth of other revenue sources, he reasons.
Others argue that the needs are too many to be reducing taxes. Kindergarten through 12th grade education is underfunded more than $250 million for the current year, and most acknowledge that it will be shorted by at least that much in the coming fiscal year. Community colleges and universities also have been underfunded, and the state faces multiple challenges in providing health care to the needy.
During the 2019 campaign, both Reeves and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said providing a multi-year pay raise to get teachers to at least near the Southeastern average was a major priority — perhaps their top priority.
A pay raise that was planned for the 2020 session was scrapped because of the uncertainty caused by the pandemic. Reeves did not make a teacher pay raise part of his legislative priority released last week, though a spokesperson later said the governor believed there would be money for a pay raise even while cutting taxes.
But he notably said when presenting his budget that teachers tell him all the time, “I didn’t get into teaching for the money. I didn’t go into teaching for any other reason than I wanted to make my community a better place.”
Still, Reeves might have a difficult time convincing legislators during the 2021 session, which begins in January, to impose a massive tax cut if they cannot muster the money for a teacher pay raise.
Under that scenario, he could again become the nail.
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 Saturday, November 21:
New cases: 1,972| New Deaths: 15
Total Hospitalizations:965
Total cases: 142,401| Total Deaths: 3,657
Mask Mandates | On Sept. 30, Gov. Tate Reeves ended the statewide mask mandate order, originally issued Aug. 4. On Nov. 16, Reeves added seven counties to the state’s mask-wearing mandate. The 22 counties under a mandate until Dec. 11 are: Benton, Carroll, Covington, DeSoto, Forrest, Harrison, Hinds, Humphreys, Itawamba, Jackson, Lamar, Lauderdale, Leflore, Lee, Madison, Marshall, Montgomery, Pontotoc, Rankin, Tate, Winston, and Yalobusha. State health officials still encourage widespread masking and credit the mandate with helping cases improve after a steep summer spike. View the full list of COVID-19 orders here.
The seven-day new case average reached 1,143 today, a 54% increase since the start of November and the highest mark since Aug. 3.
The health department has reported over 8,000 new cases in the last week; apart from the record surge in July and August — which saw a 13-day stretch with over 8,000 new weekly cases — this is the only other time Mississippi has reached that threshold.
The number of hospitalizations have also begun to surge in the last month; using the seven-day rolling averages, total hospitalizations have increased by 32% in that time, ICU patients by 34%, and patients on ventilators by 36%.
Overall, the state’s ICUs are 84% full, with COVID-19 patients comprising 26% of all ICU beds. Sixteen of the state’s highest level COVID-care centers are at 86% capacity, and five of them — both Baptist Memorial Hospitals in Southaven and in the Golden Triangle, University of Mississippi Medical Center and St. Dominic in Jackson, and the Delta Regional Medical Center in Greenville — have zero ICU beds available.
According to the latest White House task force report, Mississippi’s test positivity rate is now 14%.
Within the last two weeks, Mississippi has moved from “orange” to “red” on the Global Health Institute’s risk level tracker, meaning it now averages over 25 daily new cases per 100,000 residents. Despite the rise in cases in the state, Mississippi now ranks 31st in new cases per capita, dropping from 26th a week ago.
Counties across the state saw large increases in cases over the last week. Choctaw County (15% increase), Stone County (12%), Lincoln County (12%), Attala County (12%) and Marshall County (12%) saw the biggest surges in that span.
MSDH reports that 116,683 people have recovered.
Click through the links below to view our interactive charts describing the trends around the coronavirus in Mississippi:
Faye Peterson, the Hinds County circuit court judge overseeing Nancy New’s case, issued a gag order in the DHS case. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Editor’s note: This story is the result of a collaboration between the Clarion Ledger and Mississippi Today. Anna Wolfe reported for Mississippi Today and Giacomo Bologna reported for the Clarion Ledger.
After admonishing a defendant this week for speaking to reporters, a Hinds County judge put a gag order on all parties involved in a case stemming from Mississippi’s welfare embezzlement scandal.
In connection with what officials are calling a “sprawling conspiracy,” a grand jury indicted six people in February for allegedly stealing or conspiring to misspend millions of federal dollars meant for poor Mississippians.
The judge’s order means the public must likely wait until criminal trials are held to learn more about the scandal, and that could take several months — if not longer.
All six defendants have pleaded not guilty and are currently expected to stand trial in 2021, the key cases planned for February and April, though additional delays are possible. Until this month, none of them had spoken publicly about the investigation.
In an exclusive interview with Mississippi Today and the Clarion Ledger, a key defendant in the case Nancy New declined to answer many questions, but refuted the narrative offered by investigators.
Nancy New
Officials say Nancy New and her son Zach New embezzled $4.15 million in federal welfare dollars that flowed from the Mississippi Department of Human Services through a nonprofit founded by Nancy New called the Mississippi Community Education Center. According to prosecutors, the News funneled about half of that money to a politically connected Florida-based biomedical startup.
But when asked if she had been directed to make payments to the founder of the concussion drug company, Nancy New responded “absolutely.” Mississippi Today and the Clarion Ledger published Nancy New’s comments in a Nov. 14 story.
Faye Peterson, the Hinds County circuit court judge overseeing Nancy New’s case, apparently read the story.
Two days after the story’s publication, Peterson issued an order referencing the article. It prohibited any parties, representatives or witnesses from speaking to the media to ensure Nancy New receives an impartial trial.
It’s common for judges to issue these kinds of orders in highly publicized cases.
“There’s two things to be balanced, the public’s right to know and the right to a fair trial,” said longtime north Mississippi defense attorney Jim Waide.
In May, three months after the arrests, State Auditor Shad White released his annual state audit. In 104 pages, the auditor detailed $94 million in questionable spending by the Mississippi Department of Human Services under former director John Davis and the agency’s subgrantees, including Nancy New’s Mississippi Community Education Center.
Once former Gov. Phil Bryant appointed Davis in 2016, the welfare director began overseeing a $86.5 million annual welfare block grant called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which comes with exceptionally lax spending requirements.
“He (Davis) saw it as an opportunity to build a kingdom over there,” White said to the media after releasing his report. “If there was a way to misspend money, it seems DHS leadership or their grantees thought of it and tried it.”
Waide echoes those defending the alleged perpetrators of the scheme, saying he believes officials have tried the defendants, particularly Davis, in the media since the February arrests.
“I think that those statements that the state auditor made are highly prejudicial,” Waide said. “He’s already indicated throughout the media that (Davis) is guilty.”
“I think the auditor severely hampered (Davis’) right to a fair trial,” he added. “I think the obvious effect of it was to create possible bias of the jury.”
