A man in his 60s has become the 87th person to die from COVID-19 in Leflore County.
The patient died Friday at Greenwood Leflore Hospital, according to hospital spokeswoman Christine Hemphill. He had multiple underlying health problems, she said.
The death was one of 31 statewide reported Tuesday by the Mississippi State Department of Health. Mississippi’s total fatality count from the virus now stands at 3,202.
The Leflore County victim was Black.
Blacks have accounted for 70 of the county’s COVID-19 deaths, or 80%, exceeding the estimated overall Black population of 75%.
Experts attribute the disparity to a lack of access to health care and a higher likelihood for underlying health problems among African Americans, which makes them more susceptible to bad outcomes if they contract the disease.
Meanwhile, Carroll County, which had been experiencing one of the state’s lower infection rates, zoomed to the top following an outbreak earlier this month at a correctional facility located in Vaiden. Officials at the Carroll-Montgomery County Regional Correctional Facility have said that on Oct. 6, 113 out of 260 inmates tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Those numbers were added last Thursday to the county’s total.
As a result of that spike, Carroll County’s infection rate for the week ending Sunday averaged 16.8 new cases daily per 10,000 residents, according to data tracked by the Harvard Global Health Institute and the Brown School of Public Health.
By comparison, Leflore County during that save time period averaged 3.65 new cases daily per 10,000 residents, the 17th highest in the state. Mississippi, averaging 2.72 new cases daily per 10,000 residents, ranks 15th in the nation overall.
As of Tuesday morning, the Greenwood hospital had six patients in its COVID-19 unit, none of whom were on ventilators.
Mississippi's COVID-19 cases and deaths as of Oct. 19, 2020
