Mississippi state health leaders say they are still not out of the woods, but they are noticing a modest decline in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and nursing home outbreaks.
Some Mississippi hospitals are being forced to cancel vaccine appointments while others are still waiting for shipments of vaccines for their community members.
Several organizations have stepped up to help provide learning locations in the Mid-South, but as the pandemic continues, they could use assistance to keep supporting students.
The goal is to vaccinate around 650,000 people twice by the end of the year, but with the state currently offering 8,900 doses a week, there simply isn’t enough to reach that goal.
Recent numbers from a pool of people vaccinated by the Shelby County Health Department show twice as many white people in Shelby County have gotten the COVID-19 vaccine than African American and other races.
The Shelby County Health Department has reported 548 new coronavirus cases and 31 deaths across the county. The health department said the deaths range between December 2, 2020, and January 11, 2021.
The Shelby County Health Department said it’s working to set up a separate vaccination site for those needing their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Vaccinations continue to ramp up across the Mid-South. Now, the federal government is recommending states start vaccinating people 65 years of age and older.
As of Wednesday, Jan. 13th, the state of Mississippi announced that all available vaccines have been allotted, and that another shipment isn’t expected until mid-February. We will update this story when new information is available.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, 11 million children lived in food-insecure homes---meaning there was not enough food, or the right kind of food---to live a healthy lifestyle.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris’ Chief of Staff Danielle Inez said about 2,000 people signed a petition in support of some sort of financial aid for restaurant workers in the county.
“I think the idea is, let’s try to get the maximum number of people vaccinated. We know 10 days after you get your first shot you are protected, 14 days you are very well protected up to 90 (percent),” said infectious disease consultant Dr. Manoj Jain.
Based on the weekly allotment, SCHD will resume vaccinations on an appointment-only basis at the Pipkin Building at the Shelby County Fairgrounds each Tuesday through Saturday between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.
The state has now had 640,606 people contract the virus and 7,618 die. Nearly 560,000 virus cases in the state are now considered inactive while 73,363 active cases remain.
New research suggests that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine can protect against a mutation found in two contagious variants of the coronavirus that erupted in Britain and South Africa.
An early look at Shelby County’s Friday COVID-19 data release shows the county has reached a grim milestone, surpassing 1,000 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
COVID-19 vaccinations are not happening as quickly as many have hoped. A health expert gives his opinion about what he thinks will speed up the process.
At this point in the pandemic, there have been over twelve million cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. And now with Pfizer and BioNtech as well as Moderna concluding phase three trials of their COVID-19 vaccine candidates, you may be asking yourself should I get vaccinated?
About three weeks after getting their first COVID-19 vaccine, many Memphis health care workers received their second dose completing their vaccination process.