When the Mississippi Department of Health released last week its first list of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities with COVID-19 outbreaks, Leflore County’s numbers showed 23 deaths among them.
Since then, the county has been averaging a death a day from the disease at long-term care facilities.
Another was added in Wednesday’s update by the Mississippi State Department of Health. The individual was the county’s sixth white victim, compared to 38 blacks.
Long-term care facilities now account for 30, or 68%, of the county’s 44 deaths from COVID-19.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.
Nursing homes and other long-term care facilities are particularly vulnerable to having bad outcomes from the respiratory disease.
Presently, three long-term care facilities in Leflore County have active outbreaks of COVID-19, according to the Health Department. Two were identified last week — Crystal Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center and Golden Age nursing home. The third is expected to be named this week by the Health Department.
Meanwhile, Carroll County’s only nursing home is reporting no active cases of COVID-19. Vaiden Community Living Center had been the site of a major outbreak that took the lives of 10 current or former residents. Infections there, though, have been steadily declining since reaching their peak when dozens of residents and employees tested positive for the virus.
Overall, there were 374 new cases added to Mississippi’s totals Wednesday. There were also 21 new deaths, although four of these occurred before June 2 and were later identified though death certificate reports.
The state has recorded 18,483 cases of COVID-19 and 868 deaths since the outbreak began.
Greenwood Leflore Hospital’s COVID-19 unit was treating two patients with the disease as of Wednesday morning, according to Christine Hemphill, a spokeswoman for the hospital. Neither was on a ventilator.
Leflore County has the third-most deaths of the state’s 82 counties. Lauderdale County leads with 74, followed by Neshoba County with 49.
Mississippi's COVID-19 cases and deaths as of June 9, 2020
