Amid surging cases statewide, the number of coronavirus infections reported each day in some Southwest Mississippi counties is steadily declining.
Pike County added a new death to its record over the weekend.
Lincoln County, meanwhile, is experiencing an apparent rash of community transmission of the virus.
Lincoln and Pike counties appeared to be keeping pace with one another for weeks, other than when an outbreak at Silver Cross Health and Rehabilitation Center in Brookhaven caused Lincoln County cases to spike in April.
But the number of cases reported in Lincoln County each day continues to outpace those in Pike County, which have dropped off considerably.
Other local counties, including Amite, Walthall, Wilkinson and Franklin, seem to be keeping in line with lower transmission rates.
State health officials reported two new cases and no additional deaths in Pike County on Monday morning for a total of 178 infections and 11 deaths recorded since March 11.
However, Lincoln County tallied eight new cases and another death, brining the total there to 218 cases and 18 deaths since March 11.
Pike County identified just four new cases since Friday, while Lincoln County noted an increase of 21 over the weekend.
Lincoln County’s uptick in cases seems to be as recent as Pike County’s apparent downturn.
On May 1, Pike County had identified 143 confirmed infections — two more than what had identified in Lincoln County and weeks after the Silver Cross outbreak.
But since then, Lincoln County has added cases at an exceedingly high rate compared to Pike County. Since May 1 — and as of Monday afternoon — there were 35 new infections identified in Pike County compared to 77 in Lincoln County. That’s with one only subsequent nursing home outbreak, indicating residents of Lincoln County may be experiencing continued community transmission of coronavirus outside of long-term care facilities.
While the 19 of the 77 newly identified cases there are among nursing home residents, the vast majority are not.
On May 5, there were 49 infections identified among nursing home residents in Lincoln County. Monday officials had identified 68, an increase of 19 over that period and 14 deaths among those residents.
State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said Friday the health department is planning to test every resident and employee of a nursing home in Mississippi over a two-week period to identify and isolate people with coronavirus.
Meanwhile, other Southwest Mississippi counties have seen a marked decrease in coronavirus activity, other than the three new cases identified in Amite County on Monday, bringing the total there to 46 and no deaths.
Wilkinson County saw a rapid increase in cases in late March and early April, when it had Mississippi’s highest per capita rate of infection among the state’s 82 counties, but has since continually added no new cases day after day. There were 70 cases there on May 5 and now 78 cases have been recorded along with nine deaths.
The same number of cases were identified in Lawrence County, where nobody has died as a result of the virus. The initial outbreak in Wilkinson County was likely not due to infections among nursing home residents, as only five have fallen ill there since March 11, state health officials reported.
Walthall County has 46 confirmed cases and no deaths and hasn’t seen much activity whatsoever in recent weeks. There were only 33 cases there on May 5. And Franklin County remains almost undisturbed, with only 21 infections and one death identified among residents there.
Statewide, health officials identified 136 new infections and seven deaths Monday morning. No deaths occurred in Pike or its contiguous counties. Since March 11, officials have identified 11,432 infections and 528 deaths.
