The U.S. outbreak of COVID-19 in the decade’s first pandemic is causing disruption to the daily lives of people all around the world.
Officials with the Mississippi Department of Health addressed the situation in a Monday afternoon press conference in Jackson.
State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said Mississippi saw two new cases Monday, one in Pearl River County and another in Monroe County. That brings the statewide total of confirmed cases up to 12 out of 289 people tested.
Mississippi is experiencing low-level transmission but that could quickly change, Dobbs said. The state is not recommending the closure of bars or restaurants, but that option is under consideration.
Dobbs said President Donald Trump on Monday recommended avoiding crowds of 10 or more, down from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guideline of 50 or fewer people that was issued Sunday.
Dobbs said state officials will continue to monitor schools and businesses and may make additional recommendation.
The state health lab is completing test results within 24 hours and accepting and running new samples each day. Test results are posted each morning on the department’s social media pages and its website, Dobbs noted.
He said patients who suspect they may have the virus need to see their doctor to get tested rather than showing up to county health department facilities.
Medical clinics are urged to cancel non-essential visits and officials strongly recommend that surgery centers and hospitals delay elective surgeries in order to focus on urgent care.
Reports of a lack of space in intensive care units across the world do not represent the situation in Mississippi, he said. Hospitals in the state have hundreds of available negative pressure rooms and haven’t seen any increase in demand for ICU beds. But Dobbs noted ICU’s in Jackson tend to stay full.
The State Department of Health has also keeps stocks of personal protective equipment available to health care workers, especially those in hard-hit areas of the state.
He urged people who are sick to stay home.
“If you’re ill, please don’t go to work,” Dobbs said. “Stay home and protect your coworkers and your school.”
Local Response
Locally, there haven’t been any confirmed cases of COVID-19, although Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center has tested 13 patients — with nine completed tests returning negative results. Hospital officials are still waiting on the other results, SMRMC Infection Preventionist Tammy Bacot said.
There’s been a easing of restrictions on testing for the virus by the State Department of Health. Doctors at the hospital formerly had to consult state doctors about each individual potential case and together the physicians would decide if testing was appropriate.
Now doctors at local facilities can order the tests to be run based on their own determination if a patient fits the correct criteria.
To be tested for the virus, a patient must experience a cough and fever of more than 101 degrees or shortness of breath while being 65 years or older with a compromised immune system. Others may be tested if they have had recent contact with a confirmed or suspected case or if they’ve traveled to an area with widespread and ongoing transmission of the infection.
Those who test positive for the virus usually develop a fever and then a dry cough. Shortness of breath tends to come about a week after the cough develops, according to hospital officials.
Doctors at the hospital will begin a test by swabbing culture from the nasal and oral cavities from the back of the throat, just like a test for strep throat. The specimens are then transported for testing at the state lab.
A coronavirus hotline set up by hospital officials is working effectively, Bacot said. The hospital has received several calls from potential patients and the hotline is staffed 24 hours a day by hospital nurses.
Southwest Health System asks that anyone who thinks they may have the virus call (601) 249-3627 before coming in-person to one of their facilities, so officials can make adequate preparations. Officials ask that people limit visitation unless absolutely necessary.
Visitors to the facilities will be screened with a series of question before being admitted. People can visit between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., though those times are subject to change on a day-to-day basis. Each patient can receive only one visitor at a time and visitors need to use the main lobby, emergency room or cardiovascular center lobby entrances.
Critical care patients will not receive visitors unless a patient is at their end of life. Those patients will be afforded two visitors. Patients in isolation, cardiovascular and cancer patients cannot receive visitors. Surgery and digestive disease patients, labor, delivery, recover and postpartum and rehab patients may also receive one visitor.
Minors under 18 may receive visitors, including parents, guardians or a caregiver.
Those most at risk of falling ill are people 65 years or older with existing health conditions. However, anyone can become infected and many people may not experience symptoms. Even while experiencing only mild or no symptoms, people can transmit the virus.
The best way to slow the roll of the virus is to follow state and national guidelines and stay at home, Bacot said.
It is spread when an infected person sneezes or coughs and those respiratory droplets make their way into the mouth or nasal passages of another person. The virus can’t spread if people don’t spread it, she said.
