Gov. Tate Reeves announced an expansion of unemployment benefits Tuesday in an effort to provide relief for Mississippians who have lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Mississippi State Department of Health reported 204 new coronavirus infections and 14 new deaths Tuesday, with three new cases in Pike County. The county total is 118 cases, with three deaths and two outbreaks in long-term care facilities.
A third death was reported in Pike County on Tuesday.
Statewide, there were 4,716 confirmed cases and 183 deaths. Among patients, 2,419 were black, 1,540 were white, 385 were of another ethnicity and the race of 372 others was undetermined. Among fatalities, 117 patients were black, 65 were white and one patient was of another race.
Reeves said those who are self-employed, work for religious entities or nonprofits, within the gig economy or had insufficient earnings last year to establish a regular unemployment claim are now eligible for unemployment assistance through the federal CARES Act, passed by Congress in March.
In a normal week, the state unemployment office pays out about $1 million per week, but last week it disbursed $72 million.
Reeves said an effort to reopen the state economy is vital.
“We have to start heading in that direction. We have to do something, because for some during this time the wait has been somewhat comfortable — you have Netflix and food delivery,” Reeves said. “But for others this is deeply, deeply painful. Every opportunity we have to give a lifeline to a worker by reopening will save lives in the long term. I truly believe that.”
Reeves said the state would reopen incrementally.
“Understand that this is not going to be a light switch that we can turn on and off, that is not reality and that is not what we are dealing with,” he said. “Our reopening strategy will be continuous but it will be slow.”
State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said people need to maintain social distancing guidelines.
“We have flattened the curve, which is fantastic, but we still haven’t dropped,” Dobbs said. “Your individual behavior is the most important thing that’s going to protect you from COVID.”
Dobbs said the State Department of Health would provide guidelines for business owners on its website as sections of the economy reopen, and department officials are working on increasing testing and public health communication in the hard-hit African American community.
Reeves asked Mississippians to continue working to curb the spread of the virus.
“The fact that we went from 300 cases yesterday to 200 today is not a reason to celebrate,” Reeves said. “We know that we have delays in testing results and there’s not a consistent test whereby we’re getting these results in 15 seconds.”
Reeves said now is the time to hunker down.
“The reality is that we are still in the plateau, that we are still in the eye of the storm and the most important thing that all Mississippian can do is use common sense,” he said.
In Centreville, officials with Field Memorial Community Hospital announced Tuesday that its first recovered coronavirus patient, an older African American woman, had been discharged.
At Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center, doctors had released five coronavirus patients to recover at home as of Monday morning, hospital CEO Charla Rowley said.
Of the 529 patients tested in the hospital’s multi-county network, 105 had tested positive and 12 were being treated in the hospital.
The cough and fever drive-thru clinic changed its hours to from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
“We have seen a decline in the number of patients coming to our clinic, especially on the weekends, so this way we are still able to provide care if needed while allowing our care team in that clinic to have some down time,” Rowley said.
State health officials measure where the state is relative to the curve based on the patient-reported date of onset of clinical symptoms, not based on the number of positive test results reported on any given day. Bottlenecks in testing and the propensity of private labs to dump dozens or hundreds of completed tests at a time reduce the accuracy of that metric, Dobbs said.
Dobbs and Reeves urged residents to wear a face mask when in public or when they’re around anybody they do not live with.
Dobbs also urged hospital administrators not to buy cheap handheld tests, calling them unreliable.
In other news, the University of Mississippi Medical Center mobile testing site is coming to Walthall County on Thursday at the Southwest Events Center on Highway 48 in Tylertown. Testing will be done on an appointment-only basis from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. To be tested, patients must complete a screening using the C Spire Health smartphone app or over a phone call to a UMMC clinician. Anyone without a smartphone may call (601) 496-7200 to be screened.
Worldwide, the United States had 816,240 cases, over 600,000 more than Spain, the country with the second highest number of infections. Of over 2.5 million patients, 175,812 had died, 43,921 in the U.S. alone.
