As the spread of coronavirus continues to force state and local municipalities to adapt and health care officials work to make testing more widely available, more about Mississippi cases becomes apparent.
Mississippi saw its number of confirmed cases of a novel coronavirus spike to 140 Saturday morning, up from just 80 Friday.
But the number of deaths remains only one, a Hancock County man between the age of 60-65. State health officials have tested 775 people.
Pike County saw it’s second confirmed case Saturday morning, as did Franklin County. Nearby Walthall, Wilkinson Lincoln and Lawrence counties all have one confirmed case as well.
DeSoto County, nearest Shelby County, Tenn., the location of an initial regional outbreak in February, and Hinds County are experiencing higher rates of transmission, with 13 and 14 confirmed cases, respectively. Those appear to be the hardest-hit areas of the state, although there are a considerable number of cases in the coastal counties.
The virus appears to be infecting adult Mississippi residents at about the same rate across all age groups, with 24 cases of people between the ages of 18-29, 13 among ages 30-39, 27 among ages 40-49, 18 among ages 50-59, 26 among ages 60-69 and 26 among those 70 and older.
In the majority of Mississippi cases, patients experienced the onset of the disease around March 8, with cases spiking March 12-16.
However, 67% of patients have not been hospitalized, while 24% cases have resulted in hospitalization. And 66% of patients who’ve tested positive are female.
The data is expected to become more accurate as access to testing is expanded.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency began the distribution of personal protective equipment and other supplies across state medical facilities on Saturday morning.
Local health care and emergency management facilities were to receive shipments of supplies throughout the day. Some of the supplies come from the state stockpile and some from a Health and Human Services National Stockpile shipment received Tuesday evening.
The number of Louisiana cases jumped to 585 Saturday morning, with the state recording 16 deaths among 2,765 people who have been tested.
Nearby Washington Parish has one recorded new case, state health officials confirmed.
Across the United States, there are at least 15,219 confirmed infections that have resulted in 201 deaths.
