COVID cases in the state of Mississippi have increased by more than 123 percent over the past 14 days, according to New York Times data analysis.
The increase in cases brings the rate there to 110 people per 100,000—the second-highest in the country, behind Louisiana.
In recent weeks the state has seen vaccine rates leap in response to the rise in cases, but state health department figures as of August 13 show that just 36 percent of the state's total population have been fully vaccinated despite this.
The same figure for the whole of the U.S. was around 50 percent at that time.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data as of August 15 showed that Mississippi reported 77,048 COVID vaccine doses administered per 100,000 people—the lowest rate in the country, narrowly behind Alabama at 77,345. Vermont, by comparison, reported the highest rate in the country at 137,865 vaccines per 100,000 people.
Meanwhile, Mississippi's reported seven-day case rate per 100,000 people is 695.4 according to CDC data from August 15—the third-highest in the country behind Florida and Louisiana.
On Friday last week, Mississippi senator Joel R. Carter Jr. took to Twitter to announce that he had received his first COVID vaccine shot having put it off until now.
He said he had been "struggling with the decision for months" but added: "The infection numbers among the unvaccinated made me pull the trigger."
In an August 14 tweet, state health officer Thomas Dobbs encouraged people in Mississippi to talk to doctors about monoclonal treatments for COVID even if they are vaccine-hesitant. He added: "We will see too many deaths in coming weeks."
The state issued a health order on Sunday, detailing how patients would be rotated between hospitals because the state "has reached a point where hospitals can no longer accommodate acute clinical demands."
Mississippi State Department of Health data shows that between July 16 and August 12, 89 percent of hospitalizations were in unvaccinated people, as were 83 percent of deaths and 98 percent of cases.
Mississippi is not the only state facing a difficult wave of infections. In Florida, some school boards have defied the statewide ban on mask mandates, citing the impact of rising cases there and the need to protect kids.
Rosalind Osgood, head of the Broward County School Board, told CBS' Face the Nation: "We believe in science… we believe that we have a constitutional obligation to protect the lives of our students and staff."
Osgood also confirmed that the school had received threats from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis that their funding would be pulled if the mask mandates to protect kids went ahead in defiance of the state ban, but that the Biden administration had stepped in by saying the school would be given access to emergency funds to replace salaries if necessary.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
