The death count from COVID-19 in Leflore County is up to four, making it one of the highest in the state.
The latest death, though, apparently was of a Leflore County resident who died outside the county.
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Greenwood Leflore Hospital has had three patients suffering from the respiratory disease to die there, including most recently Dorothy Jean Boles, a longtime nurse at the hospital and the mother of Greenwood Fire Chief Marcus Banks.
However, both Christine Hemphill, a hospital spokeswoman, and Leflore County Coroner Debra Sanders said Monday they knew nothing about the fourth death, which the Mississippi State Department of Health reported on its coronavirus update that morning.
The Health Department declined to provide any additional details on the death.
Only Jackson County on the Gulf Coast has more deaths with five than Leflore County so far. On a per capita basis, according to an Associated Press tracker of COVID-19 cases, Leflore County has the third highest death rate from the disease in the state, after Wilkinson and Tippah counties.
Meanwhile, a Greenwood nursing home is reporting no additional cases of COVID-19 after one of its residents tested positive for the virus last week.
Golden Age Inc. is one of 38 long-term care facilities in Mississippi that the Health Department has reported as experiencing an outbreak, which the state health agency defines as one case of COVID-19 or more.
Long-term care facilities are considered high-risk locations because their residents are elderly or in poor health.
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. Of the 51 deaths attributed so far to the coronavirus in Mississippi, 88% have involved people who are at least 60 years of age.
Nay Reed, administrator at Golden Age, said that the infected resident at the 150-bed facility has been put in isolation according to the guidelines and protocols established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The resident “is exhibiting no symptoms and is resting comfortably,” Reed said Monday in a prepared statement updating the situation.
On Saturday, Golden Age released a statement acknowledging it was the first and so far lone nursing home in Leflore County listed by the Department of Health as being the site of an outbreak. The state agency requires nursing homes and other long-term care facilities to immediately report cases of COVID-19.
“Golden Age is taking every possible precaution to ensure that residents are protected,” Reed said in Saturday’s statement. She also said she wanted to remind the public that federal guidelines, as implemented in response to the pandemic, restrict visitors to all long-term care facilities.
All three COVID-19 deaths at Greenwood Leflore Hospital have been of individuals in their 60s or 70s with other health complications, according to Hemphill. There can be delays of up to several days between when a death occurs and when it is reported by the Department of Health. According to the hospital, this is the chronology of deaths so far.
• March 29: A man in his 70s.
• April 1: A man in his late 70s.
• April 3: A woman in her 60s.
No other information about the patients has been released by the hospital because of federal privacy laws. However, Banks, Greenwood’s fire chief and a member of the hospital board, has identified the deceased woman as his 65-year-old mother.
Hemphill said that the hospital, as of Monday morning, has six patients in its 16-bed specially designated COVID-19 unit. Two patients have tested positive for the disease and are on ventilators to help them breathe. The other four are suspected of having the virus. One of them is also on a ventilator.
There have been 1,738 cases of COVID-19 in Mississippi since the outbreak began last month. Leflore County has had 23 cases and Carroll County six.
Mississippi has been since Friday under a statewide partial lockdown following Gov. Tate Reeves’ shelter-at-home order, which is designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The order limits social or church gatherings to 10 people or less, requires nonessential businesses to close and directs people to stay at home except for essential outings, such as to purchase groceries, or to get individual exercise outdoors.
Concurrent with the governor’s mandate, Greenwood Mayor Carolyn McAdams ordered a citywide nightly curfew that runs from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Both the governor’s order and the curfew are to stay in place until April 20.
• Contact Tim Kalich at 581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
