The COVID-19 pandemic reached the U.S. state of Mississippi in March 2020.
Timeline
The Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) confirmed their first case in the state on March 12, 2020, in an individual from Forrest County who had recently traveled to Florida. Three days later, on March 15, the state had a spike in cases (4) in the state bringing the total to 10. On March 16, two new cases in the state, one in Pearl River County and another Monroe County. On March 17, cases in the state jumped from 12 to 21, with 4 in Hinds County, 3 in Leflore County, one in Jackson County, and one in Harrison County. The next day, on March 18, cases spiked up to 34, with DeSoto County seeing their first case, along with Madison County and Perry County. Bolivar County saw their first 2 cases. The following day, on March 19, the state saw 16 cases and its first death. Harris and Pearl River counties saw 3 new cases each, while the counties of DeSoto, Forrest, and Jackson counties saw one additional case, while at least one new case were reported in the counties of Holmes, Jones, Smith, Walthall, Wilkinson, Winston, and Yazoo. On March 20, the state saw 30 new cases, bringing the total up to 80. New cases were reported in Adams, Franklin, Humphreys, Lawrence, Lee, Marshall, Monroe, Pike, Rankin, Tippah, and Webster counties, while additional cases were reported in Coahoma, DeSoto, Hancock, Harrison, Hinds, Holmes, Jackson, and Madison counties. On March 21, the state reported 60 new cases, jumping the total to 140. March 22 saw 67 new cases in the state, with most counties in the state ending up with a new case.
On July 9, the Mississippi statehouse was closed as 26 lawmakers and 10 Capitol employees tested positive for COVID-19. Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann and Speaker of the House Philip Gunn were infected. The legislature will quarantine for at least 14 days.
On July 21, 1,635 new cases and 31 new deaths were reported in the state.
By July 31, the state was at 83% ICU capacity, with some hospitals completely full and transferring patients out of state.
In June 2021, as Mississippi was one of five U.S. states with less than 35% of its population vaccinated, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, predicted the state was at risk for outbreaks of the Delta variant.
Government responses
On March 14, two days after the first case was announced in the state, Governor Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency, due to the impact of the coronavirus on the neighboring state of Louisiana. Louisiana at the time was the most infected state per capita. Reeves recently came back from a trip from Spain (a country hit hard by the virus) and stated that he will voluntarily work from home for precautionary purposes.
On March 15, Jackson's city mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba declared a civil emergency for the city.
On March 21, the mayor of Tupelo, Jason Shelton, imposed a stay-at-home order that went into effect early on March 22. The same day, Columbus put in a curfew from 10 pm to 6 am until further notice.
On March 24, Governor Reeves issued an executive order deeming most businesses as "essential" including restaurants, bars and other establishments, and limiting dine-in services to 10 persons. The order also banned local governments from imposing stricter orders. However, the wording of the executive order lead to some confusion among local governments on the authority of the state overriding that of restrictions put into place by municipalities and counties. In response to criticism and confusion expressed by the public and local officials, Governor Reeves issued a supplemental order on March 26 that clarified that stricter restrictions put into place by local governing bodies were allowed.
On April 1, a state-wide stay-at-home order was issued, requiring all non-essential businesses to close. This overrode previous allowances for dine-in services in restaurants made in the March 24 executive order. State health officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs confirmed that MSDH is tracking the number of available ventilators and the number of healthcare workers infected with COVID-19, but will not release the numbers publicly. Dr. Dobbs cited the potential for fear and confusion from the numbers, despite other states like Louisiana providing them. The April 1 order also included a provision to cease enforcement of eviction orders; however, on May 14, the governor ceased the suspension of evictions as of June 1.
On April 17, Reeves extended the stay-at-home order through April 27, 2020, while allowing Coast beaches and state lakes to reopen for recreation, and businesses to perform curbside pickup and delivery.