‘Stay vigilant’ — COVID update: Lawrence County resident dies; local hospitalizations low

Published 4:00 pm Monday, July 18, 2022

A Lawrence County resident is among the latest COVID-19 casualties. The coronavirus-related death was one of five reported to the State Department of Health during the past week.

The fatality was reported with one death each in Lee, Jones and Pontotoc counties identified from death certificates July 6-8. A fifth death was reported July 10 in Quitman County. There have been 12,568 deaths reported over the course of the pandemic.

An average of 230 new cases of the virus per day were reported to MSDH over the past week — 1,611 in total. Mississippi has now reported 856,061 positive test results.

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Lincoln, Lawrence, Copiah and Amite counties currently have a medium level of community transmission, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Franklin, Jefferson, Pike and Walthall have high levels of transmission. Levels were calculated July 14 using most-recent seven-day totals.

Approximately 60 people per day have been admitted to Mississippi hospitals in July for COVID-related reasons, according to the CDC. Numbers in Brookhaven have been much lower.

“We are not experiencing a lot of hospitalizations at this time, but we are seeing a fair amount of people that have contracted COVID,” said David Culpepper, marketing director of King’s Daughters Medical Center in Brookhaven. “We all should stay vigilant about protecting ourselves.”