After a week’s lull, Leflore County has experienced two more deaths from COVID-19, raising its death count to 20.
Both of the individuals to die were African American, as have been all the deaths from the novel coronavirus so far in the county. Both also had been nursing home residents.
The deaths were reported in Tuesday’s update by the Mississippi State Department of Health.
Only one of the two died at Greenwood Leflore Hospital, according to Christine Hemphill, a hospital spokeswoman. That patient was a woman in her 80s with other health problems. She died on Sunday.
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 or other long-term care facilities are particularly vulnerable.
On a call with the nation’s governors on Monday, White House officials recommended that every nursing home occupant and employee be tested for COVID-19 in the next two weeks.
In Leflore County, residents of long-term care facilities have accounted for 24% of the cases of COVID-19 but 50% of the deaths. Statewide, they have represented just 12% of the more than 9,900 cases but 46% of the 457 deaths.
Three of the four people to die in Carroll County have been residents of long-term care facilities.
Two nursing homes have been the locus for the most severe outbreaks in the two-county area — Crystal Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center in Greenwood and Vaiden Community Living Center.
Although the Department of Health does not identify the long-term facilities with outbreaks, the two are believed to be the only ones currently with active outbreaks. Leflore County has had as many as three nursing homes with at least one confirmed case of COVID-19, but the number of facilities with outbreaks has since declined to one.
The Department of Health reported Tuesday a total of 22 new deaths statewide from COVID-19, although seven of those were identified from death certificates between April 25 and May 3.
Leflore County has the fifth highest death toll of the state’s 82 counties. Lauderdale County, which has 17 active outbreaks at long-term care facilities, leads by far with 45 deaths, followed by Pearl River County with 25.
As of Tuesday morning, Greenwood Leflore Hospital was treating five patients with COVID-19 at its specially created intensive care unit to deal with the respiratory disease, according to Hemphill. One of the patients was on a ventilator to help with breathing.
The original version of this article reported the wrong date of the patient census for Greenwood Leflore Hospital's COVID-19 unit.
Carroll County COVID-19 cases and deaths as of May 11, 2020
Mississippi COVID-19 cases and deaths as of May 11, 2020
