LUY-Development

Category: COVID-19

Louisiana Hospital Bed Shortage As COVID-19 Surge Worsens

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — As a slow distribution of the coronavirus vaccine rolls out across Louisiana, hospital leaders warned Wednesday that they are running dangerously short of beds because of the influx of COVID-19 patients, a situation only expected to worsen after the holidays.

Gov. John Bel Edwards described state efforts to improve the pace of vaccinations, but he and public health officials noted nothing would happen quickly enough to combat the state’s coronavirus outbreak except the precautionary measures they’ve been preaching for months.

The Democratic governor, whose current virus restrictions expire next week, said he didn’t know whether he’d try to toughen the rules in place or renew them as is. New Orleans announced new restrictions Wednesday.

“If they’re not following mitigation measures and restrictions that are in place, what makes you believe that if I impose more restrictions and mitigation measures, that they’re going to follow those? And this is the dilemma for me,” said Edwards, at one point his voice rising in frustration and emotion.

He added: “We’re either going to do the right thing, or we’re not. And if we don’t do better, we’re going to watch a lot more of our fellow Louisiana brothers and sisters die.”

Nearly 7,300 deaths in the state have been confirmed from the COVID-19 disease caused by the virus, according to the health department. The state has been averaging more than 2,000 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 daily for weeks.

Dr. Catherine O’Neal, chief medical officer of Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, said the Baton Rouge hospital is admitting record numbers of COVID-19 patients, forcing people to wait for beds in the emergency department.

“It seems to be our most sustained peak yet and doesn’t look like it’s stopping,” O’Neal said. “We are running out of beds for these patients, and we need this COVID surge to go down and to go down soon.”

Ochsner Health CEO Warner Thompson and Chief Medical Officer Robert Hart said the Ochsner system and its affiliates had about 640 COVID-19 patients as of midday Wednesday, an increase they attributed to the virus being spread during parties and get-togethers early in the holiday season.

“This is not even the Christmas spike yet,” Hart said.

He said surgeons will be asked next week to not schedule non-emergency surgeries for anyone who might have to be admitted to the hospital as a result.

Hospitals report have continued to report shortages for the increasing patient load, complicated by temporary absences caused by staff members getting sick with COVID-19. O’Neal said Our Lady of the Lake had 50 employees out with the illness Wednesday.

In New Orleans, officials said they will forbid most public gatherings or special events involving people who are not members of the same household beginning Friday. It’s a tightening of current restrictions that limit indoor special events to 75 people and outdoor events to 150. The new rules also will limit occupancy inside businesses to 25%; attendance at sporting events will be limited to 4% of usual capacity.

The harsher restrictions take effect Friday at 6 a.m. Mayor LaToya Cantrell and city health director Jennifer Avegno said the changes were driven by the percentage of positive COVID-19 test results doubling over the last week, surpassing 10%. Rising positivity rates had already led to a shutdown of indoor bar service last week in the city.

Meanwhile, vaccinations continued across Louisiana. State guidance increased vaccination eligibility this week to include more health care workers and people 70 years old and older, in addition to the immunizations available to hospital workers, EMS staff and people who live and work in nursing homes. But the pace is slow.

Louisiana has received about 210,000 vaccine doses so far, and the health department said about 57,000 vaccines have been reported as administered. Edwards said he’s not pleased with the speed of vaccinations, but believed interest was growing and logistics were improving.

“When you first start something like this, it isn’t going to be as smooth as you want it to be, but it’s getting better,” the governor said.

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McGill reported from New Orleans.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak. Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte.

January 7, 2021
Mississippi Schools Chief: Ease Mandates On Some Tests

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi high school students will take end-of-course exams and third graders will take mandated reading assessments this spring, state Superintendent of Education Carey Wright told lawmakers Wednesday.

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But, she said, the state should waive the requirement that students pass those tests because school routines have been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

“I do believe this needs to be a year of grace for our schools,” Wright told members of the Senate Education Committee.

Under a Mississippi law that’s been in place several years, students are required to pass a reading assessment at the end of third grade. Those who don’t pass are supposed to be held back.

The Legislature could tweak the law to waive the passing requirement, or Gov. Tate Reeves could do it through an executive order.

After the first coronavirus cases were found in Mississippi in March, Reeves ordered all public schools to stop in-person instruction for the final weeks of the 2019-20 school year. For the current school year, each school district could choose whether to have classes in person, online or both. Most have had at least some in-person classes.

Mississippi gives annual letter grades, like a report card, to show how well schools and school districts are meeting accountability standards. Wright said Wednesday that she is recommending that schools and districts will keep the same letter grade for the current academic year that they for 2018-19, the last full academic year before the pandemic started.

Wright said school districts could consider expanding or creating after-school programs, Saturday school or summer school for students who need extra academic help because of the pandemic disruption.

She also asked lawmakers to consider putting more money into prekindergarten programs called early learning collaboratives. Mississippi puts little into those programs compared to other states. Wright did not request a specific amount of money but said in response to questions after the meeting that she would be happy with “as much you can give me.”

“When you’ve got a state next door that’s dumping $150 million into early childhood — states around the United States are doing that,” Wright said. “Early childhood is a proven, given, workforce development issue.”

January 7, 2021
How To Get A COVID-19 Vaccination in Mississippi & Louisiana

COVID-19 vaccines are being made available to the public starting this week.

– The COVID-19 vaccination is a two-dose series. You must schedule an appointment for your second dose 28 days from the day you received your first dose.

– The COVID-19 vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) are not interchangeable. The second dose in the two-dose series must be the same manufacturer/type of vaccine as the first

– Please schedule your second dose of COVID19 vaccine at the same facility you received your first dose.

Mississippi:

The Mississippi Department of Health is rolling out COVID-19 vaccinations statewide starting this week (January 4th).

The first round of vaccines are open to:

– Any healthcare worker, paid or unpaid, exposed directly or indirectly to COVID-19 patients or COVID-19 infectious materials.

– Also, adults age 65 and older and people with pre-existing conditions. Adults in this age group can be vaccinated at any drive-through locations, but must first make an appointment online at CovidVaccine.UMC.EDU or call (877) 978-6453 or 601-965-4071

Louisiana:

COVID-19 vaccine that will be available at approximately 100 pharmacies across the state of Louisiana. They are currently available for:

– People 70 years old and above

– Ambulatory/outpatient care personnel

– People being treated for end stage renal disease (patients on dialysis)

– Schools of allied health students/residents/staff

– Home agency patients and personnel

Patients must contact a participating pharmacy and make an appointment at the pharmacy. Patients who arrive without an appointment will not be vaccinated. Vaccinations are BY APPOINTMENT ONLY.

January 7, 2021
Pandemic-Era Mardi Gras: No Big Crowds, But Plenty Of Cake

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A subdued Carnival season begins Wednesday after the coronavirus pandemic put an end to the crowd-heavy balls and street parades that draw thousands of people to the city every year.

The Mardi Gras season always starts on Jan. 6 and ends on Fat Tuesday, which this year falls on Feb. 6. The season is usually marked by extravagant balls and parades where costumed riders throw trinkets to the mobs of people packed along the parade routes.

The coronavirus has put an end to those large events. But that has not stopped notoriously creative New Orleanians from coming up with socially distant ways to celebrate.

The Krewe de Jeanne d’Arc is a club that annually pays homage to the fallen French hero with a parade through the French Quarter on the official start of the Carnival season. This year, the krewe is hosting a “Tableaux de Jeanne d’Arc,” where onlookers will drive by various “tableaux” — a French term for “living pictures” — that will include stations of costumed revelers sparring as knights, sharpening their swords and feasting at a grand fireplace with a pig roasting in the background.

“Life as usual is gone, so we had to look for different ways of doing things this year,” said Antoinette de Alteriis, one of the club’s captains.

The Phunny Phorty Phellows, a group that usually gathers Jan. 6 to mark the beginning of the season with a costumed party on a street car, is also altering its plans. Usually throngs of people gather at the facility where the street car starts its journey to see the group off, but this year people are asked to disperse along the street car route and watch from there instead.

But people can still eat cake — king cake that is. The sweet cakes, which are decorated with the official Carnival colors of purple, green and gold, are only to be eaten starting on Jan.6.

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Associated Press journalist Stacey Plaisance contributed to this report.

January 6, 2021
Lake Charles Mayor Tests Positive For Coronavirus

LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) — The mayor of a Louisiana city has tested positive for the coronavirus and is recovering at home.

In a statement Monday, the city of Lake Charles said Mayor Nic Hunter is “doing well and currently resting at home while following the advice of his physician and public health agencies.”

The mayor told the American Press that he is about a week into a 14-day quarantine period. He said he isolated himself and got tested after after being around someone else who tested positive. He said the first few days he felt “pretty bad” but said that compared to what some people who are stricken with the disease experience he came out relatively unscathed.

The mayor said he knows of several people who recently died from COVID-19 complications and advised local residents to continue with precautions to stem the disease.

“There’s no easy or great answers for what we’re going through right now,” he told the newspaper. “COVID-19 is serious and easily transmissible.”

Hunter was elected mayor of the southwest Louisiana city in 2017.

January 6, 2021
Pandemic Haunts New Year As Virus Growth Outpaces Vaccines

LONDON (AP) — Despite growing vaccine access, January is looking grim around the globe as the virus resurges and reshapes itself from Britain to Japan to California, filling hospitals and threatening livelihoods anew as governments lock down businesses and race to find solutions.

Mexico City’s hospitals hold more virus patients than they ever have. Germany reported one of its highest daily death tolls to date Tuesday, and South African undertakers are struggling to keep up with virus mortalities. Even pandemic success story Thailand is fighting an unexpected wave of infections.

And as doctors face or brace for rising numbers of COVID-19 patients after end-of-year holiday gatherings, more and more countries are reporting cases of a new, more contagious virus variant that has already swept across Britain.

January is going to be “a tough one,” Dr. Margaret Harris, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization, told The Associated Press. “This idea that seems to be ‘Ah, we’re all sick of it. We want to look at something else. Oh, this doesn’t apply to me’ …. That’s got to go away. It really is all hands on deck.”

While Britain rolled out a second vaccine this week and some U.S. states are starting to give booster shots from the country’s first vaccine, access to inoculations globally is sharply unequal. The supply also isn’t remotely close to meeting the massive demand needed to fight a microscopic foe that has already killed over 1.85 million people.

“We’re at intense pandemic in Europe, intense pandemic in the U.S.,” Harris said. “The more you can bring the transmission down, the better chance you have of your vaccine vaccination strategy working.”

England is facing a third national lockdown that will last at least six weeks, as authorities struggle to stem a surge in COVID-19 infections that is threatening to overwhelm its hospitals.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a tough new stay-at-home order for England that takes effect at midnight Tuesday and includes shutting schools, restaurants and all nonessential shops, and won’t be reviewed until at least mid-February. Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon imposed a lockdown that began Tuesday.

The two leaders said the restrictions were needed to protect the National Health Service amid the emergence of new, more contagious virus variant that has sent daily infections, hospitalizations and deaths soaring.

The NHS “is going through probably the toughest time in living memory,″ said Siva Anandaciva, chief analyst of the King’s Fund think-tank. He said some U.K. emergency rooms have waiting times of 12 hours and doctors were treating people lined up in ambulances outside.

Elsewhere in Europe, Italy extended its Christmas lockdown, Spain is restricting travel and Germany’s chancellor was meeting Tuesday with state governors to decide how long to extend the latest lockdown. Cyprus and France are likely to announce tougher measures Thursday, and Ukraine is closing schools and restaurants starting Friday.

In Latin America, some warn the worse is yet to come.

Mexico’s capital has more virus patients than at any point in the pandemic and is flying in doctors from less hard-hit states. Its beach resorts are readying for more cases after thousands of U.S. and European tourists visited over the holidays.

“Probably in the third week of January, we are going to see the system stressed more, that there will be more ambulatory cases and cases requiring hospitalization,” said Dr. Mauricio Rodriguez of Mexico’s National Autonomous University. He blamed the rise on fatigue with social distancing, mixed messages from public figures and Mexicans lowering their guard during the holidays.

Beach parties were blamed for surging cases in Argentina, notably among young people, and the government is considering new restrictions.

In South Africa, the continent’s hardest-hit nation, authorities re-imposed a curfew, banned liquor sales and closed most beaches. Zimbabwe reintroduced a curfew, banned public gatherings, and indefinitely suspended the opening of schools.

South Africa’s undertakers are struggling to cope with the rise in deaths, National Funeral Practitioners Association of SA President Muzi Hlengwa told state broadcaster SABC.

“It is something that you have never seen before. … We have run out of coffins, we have run out of space at the mortuary,” he said. “We normally have cremations during the day but now we have cremations even at night.”

The pandemic is even reaching countries that seemed to have the virus under control.

Thailand is facing an unexpected surge that has infected thousands in a few weeks blamed on complacency and poor planning. The government is locking down large parts of the country, including the capital Bangkok, and considering tougher measures.

“We don’t want to lock down the entire country because we know what the problems are, so can you all lock down yourselves?” Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha pleaded with his nation.

Japan getting ready to declare a state of emergency this week, beefing up border controls and speeding up vaccine approval after a surge of cases around New Year’s Eve.

Italy has been trying to control its latest surge with local measures. After two months of restrictions, infections have plateaued but hospitals are still under pressure, hundreds of people are still dying every day and officials fear cases will surge again due to holiday get-togethers.

And holiday worries aren’t over now that 2021 has arrived.

Pope Francis abandoned an annual ritual of baptizing babies in the Sistine Chapel tied to Wednesday’s Epiphany holiday. Orthodox Christian countries like Russia and Greece could face more infections after they celebrate Christmas on Thursday. And China is closing schools early ahead of next month’s Lunar New Year holiday, telling migrant workers not to go home and tourists to avoid Beijing.

Vaccines offer an exit, but are getting off to a slow start in many places. Some U.S. states are struggling to secure enough shots and organize vaccinations. The Netherlands has come under heavy criticism for being the last European Union nation to start inoculations, which it will do Wednesday. Australia isn’t planning to do so until March. And most poorer countries are even farther behind.

Opposition politician Geert Wilders called the Dutch government “the village idiot of Europe.”

Yet India offers a glimmer of hope. Its infection rate is down significantly from a September peak, and the country is kicking off one of the largest inoculation programs in the world, aiming at vaccinating 300 million people by August.

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AP reporters around the world contributed.

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Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

January 5, 2021
Back To Online Learning In New Orleans As Virus Increases

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana pharmacy phone lines and websites were inundated Monday with people seeking the coronavirus vaccine, after the state unveiled the list of 107 pharmacies that will begin offering immunizations this week for people 70 and older.

With demand certain to outstrip limited supplies and interest running so high, the state website crashed within minutes of the information’s release. The Louisiana Department of Health quickly reworked the website to get the list back online.

Hoping to avoid long lines seen in other states with people awaiting vaccination, the health department stressed that appointments for the immunizations are required. Still, people started showing up at their local pharmacies and calling them days ahead of the expanded eligibility, seeking vaccines for themselves or elderly family. Monday’s release of the specific pharmacies offering the vaccine only heightened interest.

On social media, people described busy signals at local pharmacies and appointments already snapped up. Though the state’s list had eight Albertsons pharmacy locations listed as offering the vaccines, visits to the scheduling website for each location showed no available times to book appointments this month.

At Arcadia Family Pharmacy, Wayne Nash said the store hadn’t yet gotten its vaccine doses Monday, but already had received hundreds of calls by mid-morning seeking immunizations. The pharmacy wasn’t scheduling appointments yet, instead telling people to call back and check for when the vaccine is available.

“We don’t want to get people’s hopes up,” Nash said.

Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration called for patience.

“Patients who arrive without an appointment will not be vaccinated. Do not arrive at a location without an appointment,” the health department said as it announced the list.

An estimated 640,000 people in Louisiana are newly eligible for the shot this week, but only about 10,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine were initially shipped to the state’s pharmacies for this cohort, leaving each pharmacy with no more than about 100 doses available to their customers.

“My phone has been ringing off the wall this morning,” said state Sen. Fred Mills, the Republican chairman of the Senate health care committee and a pharmacy owner in St. Martin Parish. “I think there is going to be a huge demand of the 70 and older population. This population is concerned for their health, and they want the vaccination. I think for right now, the supply is not at all adequate to meet the demand.”

Mills’ drug store has applied to participate in the coronavirus vaccination program, but hasn’t yet been included. For now, his store is putting together a list of people interested in vaccination to schedule appointments when his pharmacy is added to the program.

The health department list released Monday includes 45 chain pharmacies and 62 independent pharmacies across 51 of Louisiana’s 64 parishes.

For the first three weeks that Louisiana received vaccine doses from the federal government, the state prioritized hospital employees, EMS workers, firefighters and people who live and work at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

With thousands of first doses of the two-dose vaccines administered to those groups, Edwards announced Thursday he was expanding the list to include anyone 70 and older, people with kidney failure and additional health care workers.

Even though this week’s appointments were expected to quickly fill up, Mills encouraged people to keep reaching out to pharmacies: “Call your local drug store. If they do vaccinations, get on their list. And when they get the vaccine, they’ll take care of you. And if they don’t do vaccines, your local pharmacist can point you to a pharmacy that does.”

Also Monday, the education officials in New Orleans announced that public schools will go back to “distance learning” this week because of rising COVID-19 cases in the city. The city’s school system said Monday that all pre-K through Grade 12 classes will go online by no later than Thursday. The public school system in New Orleans had returned to in-class learning in the fall.

Superintendent Henderson Lewis said in a news release that a spike in positive cases in the city prompted the “unfortunate but necessary” decision to go back to distance learning.

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Associated Press writer Kevin McGill in New Orleans contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak. Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte.

January 5, 2021
Louisiana Lawmakers Consider COVID-19 Plan For Next Election

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana’s top elections official is asking lawmakers Tuesday to back his proposal to broaden the mail-in balloting options for spring municipal elections and two upcoming special congressional elections because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin wants to use the same expansion of absentee-by-mail voting that was in place for the summer and fall elections, including the November presidential competition.

Lawmakers on House and Senate oversight committees Tuesday will consider the package of COVID-19 emergency rules proposed by the Republican elections chief. If approved there, they advance to the full Legislature for a vote. In addition, the provisions would need the backing of Gov. John Bel Edwards to take effect.

The Democratic governor “is reviewing it to make sure it meets the needs of the voters during the pandemic,” Edwards spokesperson Christina Stephens said in a text message. “The expanded mail-in voting options are critical for those people who are high risk for becoming seriously ill” with COVID-19, she said.

The emergency rules would cover a Feb. 6 special election for a vacant state House seat in Lake Charles, and the March 20 and April 24 municipal elections. Edwards also is expected to schedule elections to fill two open U.S. House seats on the March date, with runoffs in April as needed.

The congressional seats are vacant because Democratic U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond is leaving the 2nd District position to work for President-elect Joe Biden’s administration and Republican U.S. Rep.-elect Luke Letlow died of COVID-19 complications before being sworn into the 5th District job.

While Ardoin is proposing the same mail-in voting expansion used last year, he isn’t seeking to increase the number of days of early voting as he did in the previous elections.

Louisiana’s absentee balloting procedure is usually limited to people 65 or older, members of the military, overseas voters, people who are hospitalized, people who are physically disabled and people who won’t be in their parish for the election.

The rules were widened for the summer and fall elections that allowed people to seek an absentee ballot if they are at a higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19 because of medical conditions; are subject to a quarantine order; are advised by a health provider to self-quarantine; are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and seeking medical confirmation; or are caring for someone who is isolated because of the disease.

For the summer elections, lawmakers approved the broader mail-in voting rules. A federal judge forced Louisiana to enact similar COVID-19 voting rules for its November and December elections after Republican lawmakers balked at the idea.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak. Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte.

January 5, 2021
Mississippi Announces Vaccine Rollout For Those Over 65

ACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Officials in Mississippi announced a plan Monday to streamline access to coronavirus vaccines for vulnerable populations in the coming weeks. The news comes as the U.S. government officials reported a major acceleration of the vaccine rollout over the weekend after a slow and uneven start to the campaign.

“We want to make sure that as many doses as we get this week, we’re getting that many shots in arms,” Gov. Tate Reeves said during a news conference. “It doesn’t do us any good if it’s sitting on the shelf.”

The Republican governor said Monday that people over the age of 75 will have access to the vaccine, beginning next week, at private clinics and drive-through sites. The week after, those over 65 will become eligible for the vaccine.

“We know that we cannot afford delays in protecting those who are at the greatest risk,” Reeves said. “We must focus on saving lives.”

The Department of Health has 18 high-volume drive-through sites prepared for the vaccine rollout. Approximately 174 private clinics have also requested vaccines, State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said. He did not immediately release the names of the 174 clinics.

Mississippi in mid-December received its first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and a similar one made by Moderna. Reeves said 163,750 doses have been distributed to Mississippi as of late last week. Close to 80,000 are designated for long-term care facilities through a partnership with the federal government, CVS and Walgreens pharmacies.

As of late last week, 1,105 of those doses had been distributed, Reeves said. Mississippi’s health care providers have been shipped 85,750 doses, 21,653 of which had been administered as of last week.

As of Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that nearly 4.6 million shots have been dispensed in the U.S.

Dobbs said the acceleration of the vaccine rollout comes as health officials expect the surge in Mississippi’s already overwhelmed health care system to continue.

“We do strongly anticipate another surge following the holidays,” Dobbs said. “It’s kind of been a recurring theme.”

Reeves said it’s time to start giving as many people the vaccine as possible instead of being slowed by having officials overanalyze who should receive the vaccines first.

“In my mind, part of the reason for the holdups has been the CDC decision to hold back and focus on who should be getting the vaccine and who should get it first,” he said. “We need to move fast and we need to get it out there. We don’t need to analyze and prioritize for months and months and months on end.”

Mississippi, with a population of about 3 million, has reported at least 4,884 deaths from COVID-19 as of Sunday evening. There have been at least 223,677 total cases of coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, the Health Department said.

That’s an increase of 1,616 cases and 13 deaths from numbers reported the day before. Three deaths occurred between Dec. 30 and Saturday. Ten deaths occurred between Dec. 6 and Dec. 28 and were reported later using death certificates.

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Leah Willingham is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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Follow AP coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.

January 5, 2021
Adams County COVID cases to surge while vaccines ramp out

NATCHEZ, Miss. – New cases of Adams County residents infected by COVID declined Christmas week, but “expect these numbers to spike back up,” said county Emergency Management Director Brad Bradford.

The state Department of Health reported for Adams County only 37 new coronavirus cases in the week ending Dec. 26 — a marked decline from 104 reported the previous week and similar high numbers in December. However, Bradford said local holiday gatherings have likely further spread the virus.

The state Department of Health on Monday reported 60 Adams County residents have died from the respiratory disease, which has infected 1,830 Adams County residents since March. In December alone, eight COVID-related deaths occurred and about 350 new cases were reported for Adams County.

Meeting with the Adams County Board of Supervisors on Monday, Bradford said COVID vaccinations are ramping up this week in Natchez for health-care workers. This is part of the first phase of the nationwide inoculations that will eventually be given to anybody. Drive-through vaccinations begin Tuesday (Jan. 5) at the Adams County Health Department. Health-care workers wanting the shots must first register on the Department of Health’s website to ensure they’re eligible and can make an appointment. The first phase of the vaccinations also include those being provided at nursing homes for residents and staff.

The next phase begins next week for anybody age 75 or more, all educators and first-responders such as police officers, according to the state Health Department. Additional phases will be implemented in the coming weeks to eventually include anybody who wants to be inoculated.

COVID vaccines will also be allocated to private medical clinics. As of Monday, 174 Mississippi clinics have signed up to get them, according to the state Health Department.

While vaccines get distributed to protect people from COVID-19, more people will be infected until widespread public immunity is achieved. Mississippi has imposed various restrictions and mandates to slow the spread of the coronavirus. They include the requirement to wear masks in public places where crowds congregate and limits on the number of people gathered together.

“The most important task that we have is getting the vaccine out to the public. That is our only way out of all this,” said Gov. Tate Reeves. “I still believe everyone should continue to take social distancing seriously.”

Despite the precautionary measures and initiation of vaccines, Mississippi will remain in a “critical phase” for now as hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID patients, Reeves said at a new conference Monday. The state, he said, has more COVID patients than ever before in intensive care units.

At Merit Health Natchez, the 93-bed hospital had 20 COVID patients, including five in its eight-bed ICU, according to the state Department of Health’s latest count.

The head of Adams County’s ambulance service told county supervisors Monday that some patients have had to be transferred to hospitals in Hattiesburg, Meridian and other cities because of pressed capacity at Merit. AMR regional manager Tim Houghton said the company is hiring more employees to handle the increased demand for medical transports.

January 5, 2021