Masks are no longer mandatory in the Natchez-Adams School District. A release from the district encourages people to continue to mask, but notes that it won’t be mandatory anymore inside school buildings and aboard buses. The district says leaders will continue to monitor COVID-19 case counts and may reinstate the mask mandate if the situation requires more precautions. Social distancing measures will stay in place, as well as additional cleaning of buses and district buildings and at-home isolation of students, faculty, and staff who test positive for COVID-19.
Category: COVID-19
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Mississippi reports 11th pediatric COVID-19 death
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — An 11th pediatric coronavirus death in Mississippi was confirmed Tuesday by state health officials.
The Mississippi State Department of Health said none of the patients who died had been vaccinated.
Since the first COVID-19 case was diagnosed in Mississippi in March 2020, the department has reported:
— one death in an infant – under one year of age
— three deaths in the 1-5 year age range
— one death in the 6-10 year age range
— six deaths in the 11-17 year age range
State epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers encouraged parents to discuss childhood vaccination with their health care provider.
“Vaccination is the best protection for our children who are eligible to receive it. For those under 5 years of age, it is critically important that everyone around the infant or child are vaccinated,” Byers said.
The state currently reports 7% of those in the 5-11 age group as fully vaccinated and 37% of the 12-17 age group.
In addition to vaccinations, the state encouraged families to continue social distancing, wearing masks and avoiding large crowds.
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Home COVID Test Giveaway Monday
COVID-19 home test kits will be available Monday, first-come-first-served. Trinity Medical will be distributing those from 9 to 11 Monday morning at the Vidalia Multicomplex on Vernon Stephens Boulevard and at Trinity Medical Clinic on Serio Boulevard in Ferriday. The tests are supplied by the Health Resources and Service Administration, and each vehicle can have one package of two tests. A Trinity spokesman says roughly half of people they’re testing for COVID in the system now are coming back positive, and all of Trinity’s COVID hospital beds are full.
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Mississippi Supreme Court extends emergency COVID-19 order
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — An emergency order extending the time for COVID-19 safeguards in all courts and giving judges discretion to postpone jury trials scheduled through Jan. 28 has been issued by Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Mike Randolph.
The state’s high court has issued a series of orders to address changing circumstances and evolving healthcare guidance since March 2020, the onset of state and national emergencies created by the coronavirus pandemic, WDAM-TV reported.
Emergency Administrative Order 26, issued Tuesday, says that judges who preside over drug intervention courts also are authorized to modify scheduling of drug testing and home supervision of participants. The most recent order leaves in effect other safety provisions re-implemented Aug. 5, including using teleconferencing, videoconferencing and electronic filing to limit in-person contact in courts.
The most recent order also re-implemented allowing felony plea hearings, felony sentencing hearings and probation violation hearings to be conducted remotely by way of interactive audiovisual equipment.
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Supreme Court halts COVID-19 vaccine rule for US businesses
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has stopped the Biden administration from enforcing a requirement that employees at large businesses be vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing and wear a mask on the job.
At the same time, the court is allowing the administration to proceed with a vaccine mandate for most health care workers in the U.S.
The court’s orders Thursday during a spike in coronavirus cases was a mixed bag for the administration’s efforts to boost the vaccination rate among Americans.
The court’s conservative majority concluded the administration overstepped its authority by seeking to impose the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s vaccine-or-test rule on U.S. businesses with at least 100 employees. More than 80 million people would have been affected.
“OSHA has never before imposed such a mandate. Nor has Congress. Indeed, although Congress has enacted significant legislation addressing the COVID–19 pandemic, it has declined to enact any measure similar to what OSHA has promulgated here,” the conservatives wrote in an unsigned opinion.
In dissent, the court’s three liberals argued that it was the court that was overreaching by substituting its judgment for that of health experts. “Acting outside of its competence and without legal basis, the Court displaces the judgments of the Government officials given the responsibility to respond to workplace health emergencies,” Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a joint dissent.
When crafting the OSHA rule, White House officials always anticipated legal challenges — and privately some harbored doubts that it could withstand them. The administration nonetheless still views the rule as a success at already driving millions of people to get vaccinated and for private businesses to implement their own requirements that are unaffected by the legal challenge.
Both rules had been challenged by Republican-led states. In addition, business groups attacked the OSHA emergency regulation as too expensive and likely to cause workers to leave their jobs at a time when finding new employees already is difficult.
The vaccine mandate that the court will allow to be enforced nationwide scraped by on a 5-4 vote, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joining the liberals to form a majority. The mandate covers virtually all health care workers in the country, applying to providers that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid funding. It potentially affects 76,000 health care facilities as well as home health care providers. The rule has medical and religious exemptions.
The challenges posed by a global pandemic do not allow a federal agency to exercise power that Congress has not conferred upon it. At the same time, such unprecedented circumstances provide no grounds for limiting the exercise of authorities the agency has long been recognized to have,” the court wrote in an unsigned opinion, saying the “latter principle governs” in the healthcare cases.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in dissent that the case was about whether the administration has the authority “to force healthcare workers, by coercing their employers, to undergo a medical procedure they do not want and cannot undo.” He said the administration hadn’t shown convincingly that Congress gave it that authority.
Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett signed onto Thomas’ opinion. Alito wrote a separate dissent that the other three conservatives also joined.
Decisions by federal appeals courts in New Orleans and St. Louis had blocked the mandate in about half the states. The administration already was taking steps to enforce it elsewhere.
More than 208 million Americans, 62.7% of the population, are fully vaccinated, and more than a third of those have received booster shots, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All nine justices have gotten booster shots.
The justices heard arguments on the challenges last week. Their questions then hinted at the split verdict that they issued Thursday.
A separate vaccine mandate for federal contractors, on hold after lower courts blocked it, has not been considered by the Supreme Court.
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As Mardi Gras nears, New Orleans brings back mask mandate
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans will reinstitute an indoor mask mandate to fight the spread of COVID-19 while readying for an influx of visitors for the Mardi Gras season, the city health director said Tuesday.
Dr. Jennifer Avegno said the mandate takes effect Wednesday at 6 a.m. and will apply to participants in the annual Mardi Gras balls that take place in the city.
Avegno said Louisiana’s statewide coronavirus daily hospitalization numbers have grown in three weeks “by a factor of seven.” She said those cases have put a strain on hospitals, with emergency room waits as long as 12 hours in some facilities.
Growing numbers of coronavirus cases, driven by the omicron variant can affect treatment for people seeking treatment for other illnesses or injuries, Avegno said.
And, while Avegno said she’s hoping cases will subside in coming weeks, she added hospitalizations and deaths show up weeks after cases are reported. That could mean continued pressure from coronavirus cases about the time emergency rooms face an annua uptick in patient numbers as Mardi Gras nears and tourists, some of them overindulging in alcohol, flood the city.
Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, falls on March 1 this year. Major parades, which draw as many as a million locals and visitors to city streets, begin in the last two weeks of February.
The city already has a requirement that people show proof of vaccinations or negative tests for entry into bars, restaurants and numerous other venues.
Mardi Gras in 2020 became what officials later realized was an early Southern superspreader of COVID-19. Festivities were largely canceled last year. This year, officials are determined to proceed with Mardi Gras events, while enforcing vaccine and testing requirements.
The state health department said Tuesday that just over 1,900 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Louisiana as of Monday, up from about 200 in mid-December.
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Nearly 900 Louisiana National Guard soldiers supporting Covid missions
Baton Rouge / louisianaradionetwork.com
The Louisiana National Guard is continuing to support Covid missions around the state in 2022, at the direction of Governor John Bel Edwards. Cindy Haygood is the Task Force Covid commander with LANG.
She says the Omicron surge has led to a huge increase in test site demand throughout the state.
“We started adding testing sites working through New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day to make sure we are meeting the demand of all the citizens out there.”
886 service members are currently supporting various Covid missions in Louisiana including providing food bank and warehouse support.
Haygood says they are working at 28 vaccine sites and administering Covid tests at 31 sites.,
“They are also carrying all of the test kits as the state receives them to get them out to all of the nine Louisiana Department of Health regions.”
Haygood says guardsmen have administered more than 542,000 Covid tests, 206,300 vaccines since the start of the pandemic — and distributed over 42 million pounds of food.
She says between the pandemic and hurricanes, many of these soldiers have been activated full-time for nearly 22 months.
“It’s full time right now and the pandemic has a huge vote in how long we’ll be under these orders, but we’re always happy to serve our citizens because we are also a part of this community.”
louisianaradionetwork.com/2022/01/09/nearly-900-louisiana-national-guard-soldiers-supporting-covid-missions/
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Louisiana suspends visitation at state-run prisons indefinitely in COVID omicron wave
Misty Castile, Shreveport Times
According to a news release, “The Department has taken this precautionary measure to protect its staff and prisoner populations and will continue to review and reconsider the need for these measures.”
In lieu of visitation, the department will continue to offer two free phone calls per week to ensure inmates have continued connection to family and friends as well as video calling for a fee.
The facilities affected are:
- Allen Correction Center in Kinder
- B.B. Rayburn Correctional Center in Angie
- David Wade Correctional Center in Homer
- Dixon Correctional Institute in Jackson
- Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel
- Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women in St. Gabriel
- Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola
- Raymond Laborde Correctional Center in Cottonport
Anyone entering the prisons, including staff and vendors, are required to mask and undergo a COVID screening including temperature checks and questioning.
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Free at-home COVID test kits to be distributed Tuesday
VIDALIA, La. (AP) — In an effort to increase access to COVID-19 testing, especially among rural, remote, under-resourced and other vulnerable populations, Louisiana authorities this week are distributing at-home test kits at no cost.
The free kits will be available for curbside pickup only beginning Tuesday, said Tim Vanier, director of the Concordia Parish Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness. Individuals can pick up an Abbott BinaxNow COVID-19 Home Test from the Vidalia Municipal Complex, use it in their home and receive digital results in 15 minutes, The Natchez Democrat reported.
“We are pleased to work with the Vidalia Fire Department to provide another testing option for our community and to increase accessibility to COVID-19 testing” Vanier said.
The test kits will be available from 8:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. Individuals wishing to receive a kit will drive through the Vidalia Municipal Complex and personnel from the Vidalia Fire Department and Concordia Parish OHSEP will distribute them.
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Official: Mississippi likely headed for 5th COVID-19 wave
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — COVID-19 outbreaks in Mississippi nursing homes have almost doubled in the past week, an indicator that the state is likely heading into another major surge of virus cases and hospitalizations, a top health official said Wednesday.
“We’re in the midst of a peak of transmission that we’ve never seen, most likely, this whole pandemic,” Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said during a Wednesday news conference.
The state health officer said people who test positive or are exposed should take precautions and quarantine for at least five days, per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
“Don’t perpetuate the chain of transmission,” Dobbs said. “This is really a ‘love thy neighbor’ sort of moment, and ‘love thy family,’ also. Stay home.”
There were 63 outbreaks in Mississippi nursing homes Monday, nearly twice the number of nursing home outbreaks reported in the state last week, state epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers wrote Wednesday in a memo to Mississippi hospitals and health care providers. There were 8,344 new COVID-19 cases reported last week, an 80% increase from the week before. Byers said a growing proportion of Mississippi cases are fueled by the omicron variant of the virus.
“We really are in the fifth wave now of COVID for Mississippi,” Byers said during the news conference.
Last week, the omicron variant accounted for about 13% of all samples sequenced in the state, up from about 8% in the previous week. Byers said these numbers likely underrepresent the impact of omicron on the state because some samples collected recently are still pending sequencing. The omicron variant is significantly more infectious than the delta variant.
A total of 400 people were hospitalized with a confirmed coronavirus infection in Mississippi on Monday, compared with 239 people on Christmas Eve, the Department of Health reported.
Jim Craig, senior deputy for the Mississippi Department of Health and director of health protection, the shortage of health care workers continues to be a concern for health officials. Lack of staff prevents hospitals from opening all available beds to treat patients.
“It is becoming increasingly difficult for our smaller community, county hospitals to transport patients to some of our larger centers. … It all plays back to the staffing issue,” he said.
Health officials said Tuesday that 48% of Mississippi residents were fully vaccinated, and 29% had received a booster shot. About 63% of people nationwide are fully vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins University.
With the surge in new virus cases, there has also been a surge in demand for testing. Dobbs said the state is expanding the number of available testing sites, and asked residents to be patient.
“There is testing available, it’s just not on-demand like we’ve had before,” he said. “… That convenience might not be quite as big as it has been. But you know, this is a moment of phenomenally increased demand. So it’ll be a little bit of a challenge.”
Due to a surge in new confirmed coronavirus cases, the mayor of Mississippi’s capital city has ordered the closure of city hall and other offices.
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba’s new executive order closing offices went into effect Wednesday. Only essential employees will continue to work in person, he said. The order will stay in place until at least next Wednesday.
“The infectious spread of COVID-19 through both the Delta and Omicron variants has continued and dramatically increased in the City of Jackson, with a corresponding increase in hospitalizations and death rate,” the mayor said in a statement. “The City of Jackson does not have the luxury of a wait-and-see approach to the continued threat.”