Lowndes County continues to see the largest area increases in positive COVID-19 cases by the week, Mississippi Department of Health data shows, with more than 500 new cases between Dec. 9 and Wednesday.
Lowndes County has 3,507 positive cases as of Wednesday, the most recent update to the MSDH website, an increase of 505 from last week. Oktibbeha County saw an increase of less than half that number with 235 new cases, for a total of 2,985.
Clay County has seen 1,145 total cases and Noxubee County has seen 843, with increases of 102 and 57 respectively, data shows. All four counties have seen larger weekly increases for the past two weeks.
The spikes come at a time when intensive care unit capacity in area hospitals is full or nearly full. Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle in Columbus had four beds available in its ICU as of Wednesday afternoon, and OCH Regional Medical Center in Starkville had no ICU beds left and has been treating some intensive care patients in the emergency room.
Lowndes County School District no longer leads Golden Triangle area school districts in positive cases, according to data reported on district websites for the week of Dec. 7-11.
Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District had 17 student cases and nine staff cases in the week of Dec. 7-11 after having 12 of each during the week of Nov. 30 to Dec. 4, according to data on the SOCSD website.
LCSD had a total of 24 cases among students and staff, two fewer than SOCSD and 13 fewer than the previous week, during the week of Dec. 7-11, according to the district’s reporting at https://www.lowndes.k12.ms.us/. The number of cases in each school held steady or dropped, with the exceptions of Caledonia Elementary School and West Lowndes High School, which saw one new case each.
Columbus Municipal School District had 15 student cases and eight staff cases last week, Superintendent Cherie Labat told The Dispatch.
Under an Aug. 14 state order, school districts must report the number of COVID-19 cases among staff and students to MSDH on a weekly basis. When schools record fewer than five positive cases a week, MSDH lists the number as between one and five.
Eight students at the south campus of West Point High School tested positive for the virus during the week of Dec. 7-11, according to MSDH data. South Side Elementary also saw between one and five new cases each for students and staff. No other West Point public schools reported new cases.
Noxubee County School District currently has three positive cases, all among staff, Superintendent Rodriguez Broadnax told The Dispatch.
Annunciation Catholic School in Columbus, Oak Hill Academy in West Point and Magnolia Christian School reported no new cases last week, according to MSDH data, and South Haven Mennonite School in Macon reported between one and five new staff cases. No other area private schools were listed as reporting to MSDH last week.
Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science also reported no new cases last week, according to MSDH.
Mississippi State University has 45 active COVID cases — 31 students and 14 employees — as of Thursday, according to data updated daily on its website. That’s down from Dec. 10, when MSU had 48 active cases, including 31 students and 17 employees.
Mississippi University for Women has seen 12 new cases since Dec. 11, five students and seven employees, according to the daily case update on its website. Five of the COVID-positive employees were on campus within a week before being diagnosed.
Mississippi has seen a total of 187,904 positive COVID-19 cases and 4,320 deaths since March.
Both Baptist and OCH are set to receive 500 doses and 100 doses, respectively, of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine from MSDH as soon as Monday. North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo — which has a satellite location in West Point — received its first shipment of the Pfizer vaccine Tuesday.
Tess Vrbin was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.