At least two employees and one student at Mississippi State University have been confirmed to have COVID-19 coronavirus, university officials said in a press release Thursday.
The three individuals, including a faculty member and a staff member, are in isolation, university Chief Communications Officer Sid Salter said in the release. University officials are investigating the cases and have sanitized the areas the individuals may have recently had contact with on campus.
Additionally, an MSU Extension Service employee in Pike County is in self-isolation and being treated for the virus.
Another student is hospitalized out-of-state with what health professionals believe is COVID-19, but has not been confirmed. The student was last on campus on March 18 while moving out of fraternity housing, and had “little to no contact” with others during that time, the release said. The fraternity has been notified, and university officials are taking appropriate sanitation measures and reaching out to anyone the student may have come into contact with while moving.
At least three other university employees are in self-isolation awaiting results on COVID-19 tests.
“Under the direction of Mississippi State University President Mark E. Keenum and senior administrators across the campus, MSU has during the COVID-19 national emergency maintained a commitment to keeping our students, faculty and staff as safe as possible,” Salter said in the release. “One way that safety can best be accomplished is through offsetting rumor and gossip with factual and timely information.”
The press release said university officials expect the number of MSU-related cases to increase, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Mississippi State Department of Health both said is likely for all essential institutions, the release says.
As of Thursday, the latest update the Mississippi Department of Health has provided by press time, there have been 579 confirmed cases in the state, including 12 confirmed cases in Oktibbeha County, nine in Lowndes County, two in Clay County and one in Noxubee County.
There have also been six deaths, in Hancock, Holmes, Webster, Wilkinson, Tunica, Rankin, Tippah and Harrison counties.
DeSoto (63) and Hinds (50) counties have reported the most cases in the state.
The United States now leads the world in the number of confirmed cases with more than 85,000, according to national media outlets. More than 1,200 Americans have died from the virus.
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