The COVID-19 death toll in Tallahatchie County now stands at 62 after the Mississippi State Department of Health on Monday announced yet another local victim of the pandemic.
The death was one of four in Mississippi that MSDH said occurred from Aug. 10-12.
Word of the latest victim comes little more than two weeks after the Health Department’s July 29 report confirmed a 61st local casualty. That was the first Tallahatchie County death officially attributed to COVID since Feb. 17.
The most recent weekly report of county-by-county data, released by MSDH Aug. 14, shows there have been 3,492 total cases of Tallahatchie County residents testing positive for COVID.
The first positive case of COVID-19 in Tallahatchie County was reported by MSDH on March 23, 2020. The first local death was announced on April 17, 2020.
Statewide since March 2020, there have been 897,715 positive cases and 12,750 deaths linked to the pandemic, according to MSDH figures on Wednesday.
The MSDH’s Aug. 14 reported COVID-19 positive case totals for Tallahatchie and area counties were as follows, with the number of deaths in parenthesis:
» Coahoma: 7,217 (131)
» Grenada: 5,943 (133)
» Lafayette: 17,111 (182)
» Leflore: 8,088 (174)
» Panola: 11,421 (173)
» Quitman: 1,717 (32)
» Sunflower: 6,164 (126)
» Tallahatchie: 3,492 (62)
» Yalobusha: 4,487 (60)
For the latest Mississippi COVID-19 statistics, visit healthyms.com/covid-19.
— * —
Last Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced some relaxed pandemic guidance.
“This guidance acknowledges that the pandemic is not over, but also helps us move to a point where COVID-19 no longer severely disrupts our daily lives,” said CDC’s chief field epidemiologist, Dr. Greta Massetti.
It is still recommended that people who test positive or are diagnosed with COVID-19 isolate at home for a minimum of five days.
“On Day 6, or later, when they are fever-free for 24 hours and their other symptoms have improved, they can end isolation and wear a mask indoors at home and in public,” Massetti said.
In a change, other people — including students in schools — do not have to quarantine if they have been exposed to someone who tested positive but are not feeling sick themselves. Instead, people who have been exposed should take a diagnostic test on the fifth day after the date of exposure, and wear a mask for 10 days after that date.
“Quarantine is no longer recommended for people who are exposed to COVID-19 except in certain high-risk congregate settings such as correctional facilities, homeless shelters, and nursing homes,” Thursday’s revised rules say. “In schools and [early childhood education] settings, which are generally not considered high-risk congregate settings, people who were exposed to COVID-19 should follow recommendations to wear a well-fitting mask and get tested.”
People who are isolating with COVID symptoms are asked to still wear a mask for five days after the end of the five-day isolation period.
The CDC no longer emphasizes physical distancing, which had been a staple of early guidance.
“Physical distance is just one component of how to protect yourself and others,” the revised guidance stated.
The updated guidance also says that “screening testing of asymptomatic people without known exposures” is no longer necessary.
The new guidance also recommends “case investigation and contact tracing only in health care settings and certain high-risk congregate settings.”
For more information on recommendations and for other COVID information, visit the CDC website at www.cdc.gov/coronavirus.
