Late Wednesday, June 3, the Mississippi State Department of Health released the names and locations of Mississippi’s long-term care facilities with COVID-19 outbreaks. The Department of Motor Vehicles will have new guidelines when it reopens Monday, June 8. Photo by Javier Matheu on Unsplash

After weeks of refusing, Mississippi State Department of Health last night released the names and counties of long-term care facilities with COVID-19 outbreaks. The Jackson Free Press and other news organizations repeatedly called for the release of this information prior to its release. MSDH agreed to make the data public only after a court order from a Pine Belt News lawsuit compelled them to do so.

The data, acquired through self-reporting from affected facilities including nursing homes, reveals some of the trends driving viral hotspots across the state. Bedford Care Center in Hattiesburg tops the list in every reported metric: employee cases, resident cases and resident deaths. A lack of information from Bedford Care Center is at the heart of the lawsuit that finally compelled MSDH to release the information.

In Hinds County, Woodlands Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center, Mississippi State Veteran's Home, Magnolia Senior Care, Pleasant Hills Community Living Center, House of Faith LLC and Westhaven Residential Facility are listed as long-term care facilities experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks. Only Woodlands Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center reports any COVID-19 deaths in the county, with eight.

Choctaw Residential Center in Neshoba County, which sits at the epicenter of the outbreak on tribal lands in Mississippi, lists the second highest metrics for deaths in the state.

Twenty residents at that LTC have lost their lives to complications from COVID-19.

Notably, every COVID-19-affected facility is listed as having an “active” outbreak, meaning the threat for continued spread of COVID-19 in the facility has yet to end. Not all of the data matches with MSDH’s previous information on the outbreaks. MSDH removed the previous graphs of these facilities’ cases and deaths by county shortly before press time, replaced with a note that the data would be updated later in the day.

Today’s MSDH COVID--19 report shows 238 new cases of COVID-19 and 12 new deaths, three from previous investigations. On June 2, MSDH reported 268 new cases with 28 additional fatalities, 10 from previous investigations. June 3 brought 302 more cases and 15 more deaths. At least 80 Missippians have lost their lives this week to the disease, for a total of 794. The statewide total for infections stands at 16,560.

Read the JFP’s coverage of COVID-19 at jacksonfreepress.com/covid19. Get more details on preventive measures here. Email state intern Julian Mills at [email protected].