Reeves hits pause on reopening in the face of huge spikes in new COVID-19 cases

Wednesday, Gov. Tate Reeves announced he would not be moving forward with reopening Mississippi. Instead he extended the current Safe Return order until July 20.

“Our plan has been to fully reopen by July 1, today. That is not happening,” Reeves said in a live update. “Our reopening is paused, and we’re considering what we must do going forward. That was not an easy call.”

The decision was made in the wake of record numbers of new cases and hospitalizations in Mississippi. The average of new cases for the past week is 607, double the seven-day average just a few shorts weeks go. Adding the record spike of 1,092 just eight days ago brings the eight-day average to about 668 a day.

State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs also pointed out that hospitalizations were also increasing at a fast rate.

“UMMC critical care capacity is always pretty tight but what we’re seeing now is all the big hospitals and even some of the smaller surrounding hospitals have very limited bed capacity,” Dobbs said.

From a recent low in hospitalizations June 6, the numbers have climbed more than 60% to a record high Thursday of 602 patients statewide. While the numbers of people needing critical, ICU beds has not seen a corresponding increase, yet, Dobbs said that patients may be hospitalized with the virus for up to two weeks before they become critical.

Both Reeves and Dobbs emphasized once again that Mississippians can help get the virus under control by paying attention to the basics: wear a mask in public, maintain social distancing and practice good basic hygiene. Reeves also added that having big parties was not a good idea.

“Draconian measures would not be necessary if people followed the simple rules,” Dobbs said.

“Recognize this is not a hoax,” Reeves added. “It is a danger, an imminent threat to all of us.”