On Wednesday morning, May 6, members of the Jones County Chamber of Commerce participated in a virtual meeting with Mississippi State Department of Health State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs and South Central Regional Medical Center Chief Medical Officer Dr. Mark Horne.
Dobbs said in recent weeks that the governor has been gradually loosening the restrictions for people to get back to business, but he stressed that the coronavirus is not over.
“In Mississippi, although we have flattened the curve, we are still seeing a lot of cases. This past week we reported more cases than we have reported the whole time. The coronavirus is worse now than it was a month ago. Letting our guard down is a really bad idea.”
Dobbs explained that the primary purpose of the shelter-in-place was to slow the spread of the virus and to keep from overwhelming our healthcare system. It also allowed the healthcare system to increase its supply of personal protective equipment for their healthcare workers.
He stressed that reopening businesses needs to be done in a gradual way to control any adverse events.
“We should not do things that are unnecessary,” exclaimed Dobbs. He explained that there are folks angry because they want to have massive baseball tournaments in two weeks. “It’s not the time for that now. I’m very sorry, but that is not a critical need, and you will certainly have disease transmission in those types of events. So, please be patient.”
“It is so very important that we don’t let our guard down from social distancing,” stated Dobbs. “We need to be doing more of it. When we are in public spaces, we should maintain our distance. When we are around other folks, we should wear our masks and do hand hygiene. If we go to the store, we go one at a time and not bring the whole family and grandma. We really need to minimize social interactions and mass gatherings like funerals, weddings and, unfortunately, church. That is where we’ve seen a lot of our disease transmission. We need to be a little more patient as we slowly open up and do more. Unfortunately, what we are seeing is that people are tired of this, and instead of being gradual and getting back into stuff in a reasonable way, they are wanting to just go back to normal.
“We’ve seen a transition in the hot spots in different parts of the state, especially the counties in the east-central part of the state. Unfortunately, Jones County is in the top ten,” continued Dobbs. “Jones County in the past seven days has reported 53 new cases – a 40 percent increase over the past week. We are seeing growing case numbers in Jones County. There is just ongoing transmission in the county, and that complicates our strategies as far as reopening some areas.”
Dobbs added that as summer approaches, he is hopeful that the virus transmission will slow down. However, he said that we would need to get ready for the fall when the virus is expected to flare up again, and, more than likely, a vaccine for the coronavirus will not be available by then.
“There is a lot of unknowns that we need to be prepared for, and I think from an economic perspective, you guys need to be thinking about that,” stated Dobbs. “Hopefully, if we go into fall with more cases, as has been predicted, instead of us going from full normal to full shelter-in-place, we go from a new normal to an adjusted normal so that we can abrogate transmission in a way that maintains some sense of normalcy.”
Dobbs added that Jones County has the largest number of coronavirus patients in the ICU per capita than any other county in the state.
“We have noticed an uptick in our critical care,” agreed Horne.
He added that there are many patients who are sent home who are doing well, and those that are admitted that don’t need critical care services are being turned around rather quickly.
“It’s that subset of patients that need critical care that really bogs us down,” said Horne. Because, as Thomas (Dobbs) and I have talked, when they get sick, they tend to stay sick for quite some time, and they soak up a lot of resources.
“Another thing, in spite of heroic efforts on the part of our staff in the nursing homes, we do have some cases in one of our nursing homes now. We are working with the State Department of Health and redoubling efforts to contain that. So far, so good!”
In regard to Mississippi flattening the curve, Dobbs said that because of the recent increase in cases and deaths across the state, he was not sure where Mississippi is right now.
“My hope of hopes is that we had a peak in the state last week,” exclaimed Dobbs.
He explained that the deaths might reflect old infection. “But the problem is we have hot spots, and Jones County is a hot spot.”
Horne agreed and suggested everyone continue to follow the proposed guidelines.
“Wearing masks, hand sanitation and separation are the best tools we’ve got right now,” noted Horne. “We have to continue doing these things even as the governor starts to open things up, or we will find ourselves in a much poorer situation.”
Dobbs added that the virus is not going away, and we have to learn to live with it. “We need to be fastidious in following the guidelines,” concluded Dobbs.