By Alyssa Schnugg
News editor
alyssa.schnugg@hottytoddy.com
Fewer cases of COVID-19 in Lafayette County were reported last week by the Mississippi State Department of Health from the previous week; however, the county has seen some of its highest number of cases in the last few days.
The Mississippi State Department of Health started releasing weekly COVID-19 updates broken down by each county at the start of the month.
The weekly graphs show some local statistics and case trends for each county, which the department claims will give county leaders a “better picture of local conditions” to assist with their response to the spread of the virus.
According to the MSDH data, which includes data through Sunday, July 25, Lafayette County has had a total of 723 cases with the most, 334, being among the 18-29 age group. There were 39 cases reported in children under 18 years old. Only two cases were reported in people over 90 years old.
In the week ending July 18, there were about 80 new cases reported. On Sunday, there were close to 50 new cases reported for the week. However, as of Monday, Lafayette County saw another 39 cases over the weekend. Monday numbers will be released by the MSDH around noon today.
According to data from the city of Oxford, there were 134 active cases in Lafayette County as of Friday. City officials have been collecting data from local medical clinics as well as the MSDH since people who are staying in Oxford but have a residence outside of the state are not being included in the daily MSDH positive case numbers reported daily.
The University of Mississippi is reporting a total of 93 cases among students and faculty. In the last week, the university saw a gain of 14 cases from the week before.
According to Oxford officials, there have been an additional 239 positive cases among nonresidents.
Data from the MSDH shows that outbreaks in long-term care facilities have consistently gone down since it spikes in early June. However, one new case in a long-term care facility was reported last week.
There have been four deaths in the county associated with COVID-19 – three were patients in a long-term care facility.
Fifty-four percent of the people testing positive in Lafayette County are white, 32 percent are black; 14 percent are of another (or mixed) race, and .2 percent are Asian. Three of the four people who died from COVID-19 were black and one was white.
As of Monday, Mississippi’s total of COVID-19 cases since March 11 now stands at 52,286, with 1,464 deaths.
View the stats for Lafayette County here.
