COVID-19 coronavirus cases in the Golden Triangle continue to rise along with those nationwide, with 339 new cases in the past week after 215 new cases the week before.
As of Wednesday at 6 p.m., the most recent update to the Mississippi State Department of Health website before press time, Lowndes County had 2,066 cases, an increase from 1,941 at the same point last week, and Oktibbeha County had 2,210 cases, an increase from 2,060.
Oktibbeha County saw a sharper spike in new cases with 150, compared to 57 the week before, and Lowndes County saw 125 new cases compared to 113 the prior week.
Clay County had 793 cases, an increase of 45 cases compared to 33 the previous week, and Noxubee County had 634 cases, an increase of 19 compared to 12 the previous week.
Some local school districts, however, are seeing a lull in new cases.
Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District currently has four positive student cases and two positive staff cases of COVID-19, according to its website, where administrators update the district’s cases weekly at https://www.starkvillesd.com/covid19/numbers/index/.
The two staff cases are sixth-grade teachers at Partnership Middle School who tested positive this past weekend, The Dispatch previously reported. All sixth graders started learning entirely online Monday after eight more teachers had to quarantine due to close contact with the two who tested positive.
Lowndes County School District saw 28 new cases for both students and staff from Nov. 2 to Nov. 6, according to its update every Monday at https://www.lowndes.k12.ms.us/. LCSD had 27 new cases from Oct. 26 to Oct. 30, a sharp increase from nine the previous week.
Columbus Municipal School District had no new student cases and two positive teacher or staff cases in the same time frame, Superintendent Cherie Labat told The Dispatch on Thursday. The district had seen four new cases the previous week.
School districts are required to report the number of COVID-19 cases among staff and students to MSDH weekly. When schools report fewer than five confirmed COVID-19 cases in a week, MSDH lists the number as between one and five.
West Point Consolidated School District reported one to five new cases in three buildings — therefore ranging from three to fifteen new cases — from Nov. 2 through Nov. 6, according to the MSDH website.
None of the schools in Noxubee County School District are listed as reporting to MSDH, and Superintendent Rodriguez Broadnax did not respond to a request for case numbers by press time. Last week he reported there were only three cases in the district.
Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science reported between one and five new cases each for both employees and students to MSDH, and four employees were quarantined due to COVID-19 exposure between Nov. 2 and Nov. 6.
Annunciation Catholic School in Columbus, Starkville Christian School and Magnolia Christian School in Noxubee County all reported no new cases among students or staff, according to MSDH’s website. No other private schools in the area are listed as reporting to MSDH.
Mississippi State University updates its COVID-19 cases on its website daily. As of Wednesday, MSU has 28 positive student cases and five employee cases.
Mississippi University for Women updates its COVID cases on its website every Friday morning, and as of today there are 14 new student cases and one new employee case in the past week. MUW has a total of 57 positive student cases and seven positive employee cases.
Mississippi has seen a total of 130,665 cases of COVID-19, with 1,271 new cases from Tuesday to Wednesday alone, according to MSDH.
The United States saw a record number of 150,000 new cases on Thursday, just a week after reaching a record of 100,000, bringing the total number of cases up to 10.6 million.
Tess Vrbin was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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