As hospitalizations across the state and in the area go down, Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center is reporting its deadliest week for the pandemic yet.
Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kevin Richardson said Friday that 10 people have died in a six-day period. This is much higher than the previous points during the pandemic, when, at their worst, deaths averaged around three a week.
“This has been the most tragic week of the entire pandemic,” he said. “We ask for all of our community members to pray for the families of our patients who have died and those who remain in critical condition.”
The increased deaths come amid lower hospitalization rates. The hospital had 19 virus patients on Friday, five of whom were vaccinated. Eleven patients were in intensive care and two of them were vaccinated. None of the four patients on ventilators had been vaccinated.
Pike County had about 40% of its population fully vaccinated on Friday, behind Wilkinson County’s 48%, Lawrence County’s 47% and Franklin County’s 41%.
Pike County has a total of 5,613 people who have been confirmed to have tested positive for the virus since the beginning of the pandemic, which comes out to a total of 14.3% of the total population. Of that total number of people who caught the virus, 2.4% died.
Meanwhile, the state is steadily reporting daily infection rates under 2,000, which is a downturn compared to the surge of cases seen in August. Health officials reported 1,505 cases and 30 deaths Friday.
Nearly half the state has taken the first dose of a vaccine, according to the Mayo Clinic and 42.6% of Mississippians are fully vaccinated.
In other news, the state released a report that shows that the coronavirus had a significant impact to the state’s hospital mortality rates, with a 40% increase between 2019 and 2020.
