KOSCIUSKO, Miss.–It’s a testy time in central Mississippi. No one is immune from having to deal with coronavirus and Mississippi’s vaccination rate is still the lowest in the country. But, that number is going up.
“We have now surpassed the peak we had over the winter months, which we thought was pretty tough at that time,” said Dr. Paul Byars, state epidemiologist. He met with the president of the American Medical Association, Dr. Gerald Harmon, about Mississippi’s coronavirus numbers.
“I think one of the staggering pieces in the rapidity, how quickly we have gone up,” he said.
The kids in Kosciusko are at home for two weeks, learning virtually, and hospitalizations in Neshoba County are up 250 percent from a week ago, said Lee McCall, the hospital CEO, on Twitter.
“The vaccines are very effective against the Delta variant and we know that 93 percent of the cases nationally are the Delta variant,” said Harmon.
The vaccination rate is now over 36 percent. Free drive-thru testing is available tomorrow and Wednesday at the Leake County Health Department. They say it’s a good idea to make an appointment first.
