Symptoms are changing with the Delta variant of COVID-19.

What may seem like a common cold or allergy could be the dangerous new strain, according to a public announcement by King’s Daughters Medical Center.

COVID can now present itself with a runny nose, headache, sore throat and fever. Persistent cough and loss of taste and smell are not as prevalent with the Delta variant.

As of Monday, KDMC had 34 hospitalized patients. Twenty was the normal daily average prior to the pandemic. Eighteen of the 34 were COVID-positive. Seventeen of those were unvaccinated.

KDMC’s eight-bed intensive care unit had 15 patients, 11 with the coronavirus. Thirteen of the ICU patients were on ventilators, including all the COVID-positive patients.

In the previous 24 hours, 54 patients had been seen in the emergency room. Precisely half were COVID-related.

KDMC had administered 568 monoclonal antibody infusions across August to combat the effects of COVID. In July, the hospital administered 203 infusions.

The State Department of Health reported 1,111 new positive cases of COVID Tuesday and 48 deaths.

The case numbers reported are impacted by reduced staffing due to Hurricane Ida, however.

Twenty-one of the reported deaths occurred Aug. 25-30, and 27 were identified from death certificate reports Aug. 12-26.

Mississippi has now had 436,722 cases and 8,409 deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thirteen additional cases have been identified in long-term care facility residents and three additional deaths. MSDH reports 170 ongoing LTC outbreaks.

MSDH vaccination and testing sites remained closed Tuesday in all but north Mississippi counties.

Lincoln County has reported 205 new cases over the past week and one new death in that period, bringing county totals to 4,813 cases and 122 deaths. Just more than 14% of COVID-19 tests have returned positive results during that time.

The county has seen 199 positive cases and 40 deaths in LTC facilities.