COVID-19: Reeves orders mask mandate for 13 counties
Gov. Tate Reeves announced a new executive order Thursday afternoon that will require residents of 13 counties to wear masks while at public gatherings or in a “shopping environment.”
The order will also ban social gatherings of more than 10 people indoors, 20 people outdoors, and place other restrictions on businesses — but will not force them to close. “Mississippi is in a fight for our lives,” Reeves said. “... we are in the middle of a spike.”
Which counties are impacted?
The order, which is still being finalized, will go into effect next week and applies to the following counties:
• Hinds
• Desoto
• Harrison
• Rankin
• Jackson
• Washington
• Sunflower
• Grenada
• Madison
• Claiborne
• Jefferson
• Wayne
• Quitman
Reeves said the criteria for those counties being chosen include having seen 200 new cases within the last 14 days or having had an average of 500 cases per 100,000 residents over that same time period.
The restrictions on social gatherings do not apply to restaurants, Reeves said, which instead have limitations on capacity.
Mississippi restaurants are currently under an order to operate at 50% capacity.
It's unclear what — if any — punishments or consequences people will face for not following the governor's executive order.
When asked about potential fines or citations, Reeves said local law enforcement should use common sense and discouraged them from issuing tickets.
According to Reeves, the executive order is meant to be a “wake-up call” for people across the state.
“To my fellow Mississippians, please take this as an alarm,” Reeves said.
Reeves said the order will go into effect sometime next week because people and businesses need time to prepare.
“When you are making mandates on individuals to do things like wear masks and you're making mandates on individual business owners to put guidelines in place… they need a little bit of lead time to build up and get that done,” Reeves said.
No ICU beds at 5 major MS medical centers as cases surge
State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs told reporters Thursday morning that the five largest medical centers in Mississippi have no ICU bed space for new patients — coronavirus or otherwise — and are being forced to turn patients away, even as COVID-19 cases continue to surge.
State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers was asked about those hospitals at Thursday afternoon's press conference. Byers said the health department is not currently naming them, but is considering doing so in the future.
Mississippi reported 703 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 16 new deaths Thursday, according to the Mississippi Department of Health.
The state also hit another record high on Mississippians hospitalized with the virus.
According to MSDH data, 686 Mississippians are hospitalized across the state with confirmed coronavirus infections, up from the previous high of 658.
To date, the state has 33,591 confirmed cases and 1,204 coronavirus deaths.
Contact Giacomo “Jack” Bologna at 601-961-7282 or gbologna@gannett.com . Follow him on Twitter @gbolognacl.
Giacomo Bologna