The deaths of five more Tallahatchians within the past week have been attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to reports from the Mississippi State Department of Health.
The agency listed three local deaths in its daily report on Tuesday, Sept. 22. Personal identifying information about individual cases is not disclosed.
Last week, MSDH announced one Tallahatchie County death due to the virus on both Sept. 16 and Sept. 17.
Of the 21 total deaths attributed to COVID-19 in Tallahatchie County — the first was reported April 17 — eight have come since Sept. 9.
While as of Tuesday the agency had not updated age ranges of the latest victims, several were residents of Tallahatchie General Hospital Extended Care Facility, where a total of six have succumbed to the virus, and there have been 29 positive cases among residents and 21 infections among staff, based on MSDH’s Sept. 22 report.
The Health Department noted Thursday that 763 Tallahatchians have been infected with COVID-19 since the outbreak began. The first local positive case was reported March 23.
Of the total number testing positive in Tallahatchie County, 454, or 60%, have been Black; 201, or 26%, have been white; and 108, or 14%, have been of other or unknown race and ethnicity.
Of the 21 deaths, 14 have been Black and 7 white.
Tallahatchie County occupied a top spot in a recent MSDH list tracking high incidence of COVID-19 cases. In fact, during the week of Sept. 7-13, the latest for which the statistic is available, Tallahatchie (with 239.0 cases per 100,000) ran a close second only to Lafayette County (240.7 cases per 100,000).
Based on one-day statistics compiled during a 24-hour period ending at 6 p.m. Wednesday, the MSDH on Thursday showed 737 new cases of COVID-19 and 4 additional deaths in the Magnolia State.
Since March 11, there have been 95,310 cases of the virus resulting in 2,874 deaths reported statewide.
MSDH presumes that 85,327 Mississippians have recovered from the illness, a figure that is updated once weekly.
MSDH said 40 of the new cases and 2 of the deaths reported Thursday were among residents of long-term care facilities, including nursing homes, assisted living facilities, personal care homes and intermediate care facilities. Outbreaks were reported in 129 LTC facilities around the state.
One of the deaths reported Thursday occurred on Aug. 14 and was gleaned from a Tennessee death certificate report, MSDH noted.
The Health Department indicated that 514 people in the state were hospitalized for confirmed COVID-19 infection while another 117 were hospitalized with a suspected case of the virus. Of those hospitalized, 148 were in intensive care units and 84 were on ventilators.
Thursday’s reported COVID-19 case totals for Tallahatchie and area counties were as follows, with the previous day’s figures in parenthesis and the number of deaths listed in bold:
» Coahoma: 1,150 (1,144) 28
» Grenada: 1,077 (1,072) 36
» Lafayette: 2,154 (2,137) 39
» Leflore: 1,395 (1,383) 81
» Panola: 1,463 (1,455) 28
» Quitman: 372 (373) 5
» Sunflower: 1,445 (1,439) 46
» Tallahatchie: 763 (764) 21
» Yalobusha: 428 (423) 14
For the latest Mississippi COVID-19 statistics, visit www.healthyms.com/covid-19.
