As the Delta variant of COVID-19 is spreading across the country, cases are rapidly increasing in the Golden Triangle.
After a period of steady decline, COVID numbers continue to rise. Lowndes County is ranked 12th in most cases in the state according to the Mississippi Department of Health’s website.
As of 3 p.m. Thursday, the state has had a total of 356,055 positive cases since the pandemic began in March 2020, with 7,613 deaths. There have been 2,235,536 doses of the vaccine administered with 1,045,849 people fully vaccinated, making the state’s vaccination rate 33 percent.
Lowndes County has had 445 positive cases since July 24, the most it has seen since January, with 7,314 total cases since the virus began.
There have been a total of 152 deaths in Lowndes County with two deaths over the past two weeks. There have been 40,634 total doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered to Lowndes County residents with 19,367 people fully vaccinated, bringing the county’s vaccination percentage to 33 percent.
There have been 306 positive cases in Oktibbeha County over the past two weeks but no deaths, bringing the county total to 5,133 positive cases and 98 deaths. There have been 40,493 doses of the vaccine administered with 19,477 people having been fully vaccinated in Oktibbeha County, the most in the Golden Triangle, making the percentage total 39 percent of people fully vaccinated in the county.
Clay County has had 134 positive cases of COVID-19 since July 24 and no deaths bringing its county total to 2,067 cases and 54 deaths. There have been 12,484 doses of the vaccine administered to Clay County residents with 6,074 people fully vaccinated, bringing its percentage rate to 31 percent.
Only 50 cases were reported in Noxubee residents over the last two weeks with no new deaths bringing the county total to 1,378 cases and 35 deaths. There have been 8,146 doses of the vaccine administered and 4,051 residents are fully vaccinated, bringing its percentage rate to 39 percent.
According to MSDH’s website, Baptist Memorial Hospital in Columbus has 20 confirmed COVID patients with four patients in the Intensive Care Unit. The hospital has six ICU beds available. OCH Regional Medical Center in Starkville has 11 confirmed COVID patients and four patients in the ICU as of Thursday. There are no ICU beds available at OCH. North Mississippi Medical Center in West Point has four confirmed COVID patients with three patients in the ICU. There are no ICU beds available.
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.