Mississippi’s front line health care workers will receive the first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine next week.
State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said Tuesday that 25,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine should be available to hospitals as early as Sunday.
The initial allocation will include 50,000 shots, enough for 25,000 people to receive the two-dose vaccine, State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said. The 25,000 units of second doses will be held in reserve for the people who initially get injected to have their second dose three weeks later.
Mississippi hospitals can expect to receive more Pfizer vaccines week after next, and Moderna vaccines will likely come the week after that, Byers said.
There’s no exact number on those upcoming vaccine deliveries, but state officials are certain on prioritizing the first round for healthcare workers, especially those taking care of COVID-19 patients.
Residents in long-term care facilities like nursing homes will be the next group prioritized and may start receiving vaccines in the second week of availability.
Dobbs and Byers will be the first Mississippians to get the shot and plan to do so on a live news conference to bolster citizens’ faith in the vaccine’s safety.
The latest phase of a Pfizer vaccine study of 44,000 people showed a 95% success rate of preventing virus contraction. Dobbs said the data from that study shows that it is safe across age groups and race.
There were no significantly bad side effects or deaths. There was some inflammation, fatigue, chills, body aches and fever, but all were for a brief period “not outside of what we’d expect,” Dobbs said.
He encouraged citizens to get vaccinated when it becomes available to the public and urged them to continue wearing masks, social distancing and limiting gatherings.
“Right now we’re really asking Mississippians to avoid any nonessential social gathering. Help us start to get a lid on this coronavirus pandemic,” he said.
“You cannot clean it up if you do not turn off the spigot. People are going to die and have died because they can’t get access to the care they need. That is going to continue to happen as long as we refuse to turn off the spigot. It’s like we’re sitting on the railroad tracks watching the train come toward us.”
There were 56 new COVID-19-related deaths reported statewide Tuesday. Two of those were in Lincoln county, and Pike and Walthall reported one each.
Hospitals continued to feel the strain as the state’s daily cases trended upward and intensive care units filled up.
Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center had no ICU beds available Monday or Tuesday and was on diversion, meaning patients arriving by ambulance could not be accepted by the hospital.
“Our doctors and nurses are working around the clock to care for very sick patients. This past weekend, we had three patients die from COVID at our hospital,” said SMRMC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kevin Richardson.
He also strongly encouraged mask wearing and social distancing.
“Everyone in the community needs to understand that this is not the time to socialize or attend public gatherings. Stay home, with your immediate family, whenever possible,” Richardson said. “If this virus continues to spread at this rate, we will surely see more hospitalizations and more deaths.”
Mississippi’s daily average for Nov. 28 to Dec. 4 reached 1,876 cases, compared to the previous peak of 1,297.7 from July 25-31.
Weekly averages steadily climbed over 1,000 over the month of November, but the week after Thanksgiving saw the average jump from 1,137 from Nov. 21-27 to the new peak of 1,876.
Southwest Mississippi counties similarly reported higher daily cases the week after Thanksgiving.
Pike County rose from five daily cases to 13, while Amite County rose from 6.4 to 12.4, Franklin County from four to 7.1, Lawrence County from 3.3 to 8.6, Lincoln County from 17 to 21, Walthall County from 4.4 to 5.9 and Wilkinson County from 3.7 to 4.4.
Pike County reported four new cases Tuesday; Amite, eight; Franklin, one; Lawrence, three; Lincoln, 25; Walthall, five; Wilkinson, five.
