By Alyssa Schnugg
News editor
Lafayette County saw another spike in the overall number of cases of COVID-19 in the last week, as well as the number of deaths associated with the virus.
However, area schools are reporting fewer cases among students and Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi is also reporting fewer people with COVID-19 are in the hospital.
Since Feb. 1, Lafayette County gained 939 new positive cases, bringing the total since March 2020 to 14,587.
Since Jan. 26, 12 people in Lafayette have died due to the virus, bringing the total number of local deaths to 170. The highest number of deaths was among those who are 65 and older.
As of Feb. 4, 60.1 percent of Lafayette’s population had at least one vaccination and 54 percent were fully vaccinated.
BMH-NM reported 33 patients were in the hospital Monday with COVID-19. Of those, four were in the ICU, which is down from Jan. 25 when 50 patients were in the hospital with the virus and nine were in the ICU.
The Oxford School District also saw numbers dip among teachers and students.
From Jan. 31 through Sunday, the district reported 25 new cases, 20 students and five faculty members. There were 52 students in quarantine. Two weeks prior, the district had 261 new cases with more than 400 students and teachers being quarantined.
The Lafayette County School District reports its cases to the MSDH, which has not updated its school reports since Jan. 28.
The district evaluates its mask mandate policy on a week-to-week basis. Currently, the district is reporting being at Blue Level, which means the district has had a moderate number of new cases and masks are not required this week on the school campuses; albeit they are recommended.
It’s the first time the district has been off High or Red Level since school started back up after the winter break.
The University of Mississippi is reporting today there are 36 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported on campus – 26 students, four staff members and six faculty members.
Two students are in isolation and no students are being quarantined in student housing.
Over the past seven days, the university reports 36 new cases, down from 138 new cases the previous week.
