COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 699 new cases

By Alex Rozier and Erica Hensley | November 23, 2020

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.

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

Weekly update: Wednesday, November 18

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:

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

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COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 779 new cases

By Alex Rozier and Erica Hensley | November 22, 2020

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.

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

Weekly update: Wednesday, November 18

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:

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

The post COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 779 new cases appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

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.

The post Gov. Tate Reeves hopes tax cut plan makes him the hammer, not the nail in 2021 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 1,972 new cases

By Alex Rozier and Erica Hensley | November 21, 2020

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.

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

Weekly update: Wednesday, November 18

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:

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

The post COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 1,972 new cases appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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.”

The post Judge issues gag order in Mississippi welfare embezzlement case appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/ Report for America

Superintendent Dr. Errick L. Greene speaks during a public meeting about the findings of the student based study on the school district during a public meeting at the Jackson Convention Complex Thursday, November 29, 2018.

Jackson Public School District announced it will resume in-person learning in January of next year after operating entirely virtually during the fall semester.

High school basketball and soccer programs will resume in December, and middle school sports will begin again in January.

School will resume virtually on Jan. 5, but students will have the option to return on Jan. 19 after a “self-quarantine period” following the holidays, according to a document emailed to employees on Friday.

Elementary schoolers will be able to return to school five days a week, and middle and high schoolers will have the option to attend a hybrid program. Proper social distancing and “enhanced cleaning” will be put in place, the document stated.

Superintendent Errick Greene cited several reasons for the decision, including the social and emotional needs of students.

Those needs “are great, and it’s very difficult to offer support for those needs virtually,” he stated in a letter to parents and employees.

He also cited recent news surrounding a COVID-19 vaccine, and said the district has learned from other schools who have run in-person school during the pandemic.

All plans will be subject to change, the district noted, and the proposed transition must be approved by the school board at its meeting on Dec. 1.

The post Jackson Public Schools to resume in-person classes and sports in January appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Schools and districts across Mississippi are shutting their doors and transitioning to online learning ahead of the Thanksgiving break as COVID-19 cases sharply spike.

Schools reported record-high COVID-19 infections among students and teachers for the week of Nov. 9, and some educators are concerned that social gatherings over the Thanksgiving holiday could prolong the virtual learning period. 

Over the five-day period, 1,546 students and teachers across the state tested positive for COVID-19, according to data submitted by schools to the Mississippi Department of Health. The highest number of cases in one week to that point was 899.

That brings the total number of positive COVID-19 cases in students, teachers and staff to 7,930 since the start of school.

READ MORE: How many students and teachers have tested positive for COVID-19 in your school?

Yazoo County School District transitioned to virtual learning after several schools had multiple cases. Despite the relatively low number of cases district-wide, Superintendent Ken Barron said, a large number of teachers and staff were quarantined, making it impossible to continue in-person learning.

“Two of our schools had about half of their staff listed as close contacts (to positive cases),” said Barron. 

The plan is to resume a normal schedule the Monday after Thanksgiving. The district has been operating virtually on Mondays and returning to in-person instruction the remaining four days of the week. At that point, all students and staff at all the schools will have not met in person for more than 20 days, said Barron.

“It should give us a good reset point. But with Thanksgiving, if we start seeing cases and exposures, we may get back to virtual very quick,” said Barron. 

Germantown High School and the 7th grade at Madison Middle School in Madison County also transitioned to virtual.

Superintendent Charlotte Seals said the decision was made by following state health guidelines, particularly the guideline that states if three or more individual classes, groups or buildings are experiencing simultaneous outbreaks, transitioning to virtual should be considered. 

She said most of the cases were traced back to off-campus activities, and the school district has been preparing for this since the summer using virtual learning practice days.

“Our first practice virtual learning day was in October. All of our schools did that … so for Germantown High, that really helped when they went to distance learning,” she said. “They already knew how it worked, students know how to log in from home, teachers know how to interface through the platform and parents know how to assist.” 

Seals said the decision to only transition the 7th grade at Madison Middle School was made because the grades have separate wings in that building and don’t often mingle. 

“We have to be flexible and able to pivot. We’re going to do everything we can on a school by school or grade by grade basis because we want to get every day of face-to-face instruction we can get,” she said. 

During the week of Oct. 26 through Oct. 30, the Western Line School District reported between 1 and 5 positive cases among students and teachers. A little more than 50 students and staff were placed in quarantine, according to state department of health data. So in early November, the district took “precautionary measures” and shut down all school buildings for a week, said superintendent Lawrence Hudson.

Hudson said the district received a number of close contact reports from teachers. 

“You don’t know if they got the virus or not, or (are) spreading it to others,” Hudson said. “So the safest thing for us to do — because we had so many uncertainties of staff or students who may or may not have had it — we shut it down because it gave us time to find out more information for anybody else who had close contact.”

Western Line students returned back to school on a hybrid model on Nov. 9. Now, one week later, the district announced closing Riverside High School due to the principal testing positive. Riverside High is currently the only school conducting virtual-only learning.

Hudson said his administration is doing the best they can to be as transparent as possible with teachers, staff and the community about what’s happening in their schools. Although they don’t notify “everyone every time there’s a positive case,” they directly notify individuals who were in close contact and need to quarantine or those who were in the area of a positive case.

“If you don’t receive a notification in Western Line, you were not in danger. Until the pandemic is under control, these are the circumstances we’re faced with,” he said. 

Below are the schools and school districts that have recently transitioned to temporary distance learning. If you know of additional schools to add to the list, please email reporters Kate Royals at kroyals@mississippitoday.org or Aallyah Wright at aallyah@mississippitoday.org.

• Greenville Public School District
• West Bolivar Consolidated School District
• Hollandale School District
• Yazoo County School District
• Meridian Public Schools
• Germantown High School
• Madison Middle School – 7th grade
• Puckett High School
• Brandon High School
• Brandon Middle School
• Pelahatchie High School
• Lafayette Middle School
• Lafayette High School
• Pearl High School
• Union County School District
• Oxford Middle School
• Biggersville Elementary in Alcorn School District

The post Schools across the state close their doors as COVID-19 infections spike appeared first on Mississippi Today.