Reeves to announce further easing of COVID-19 restrictions Monday

Gov. Tate Reeves will likely announce additional loosening of COVID-19 restrictions for several categories of businesses Monday afternoon in his regular Facebook live update at 2:30 p.m.

In an interview on CNN Sunday evening, Reeves said that the large spike of nearly 400 new cases Friday was due to a data dump from one private lab processing COVID-19 tests. He indicated that the overall case count in Mississippi was trending downward sufficiently to allow additional easing of restrictions.

“I’m looking at tomorrow to announce additional re-openings,” he said.

Reeves mentioned businesses such as restaurants, barbershops and salons, and gyms for possible re-opening Monday.

He also said the state is doing a lot of testing, and that hospitals are not overburdened.

“I worry about every decision I make,” Reeves said when asked about the more than 1 million cases and 67,000 deaths from the virus in the U.S. “It weighs heavily on me.”

“The data drives our decisions,” he added.

As of May 2, the state has reported 7,550 cases and 303 COVID-19 deaths.