This week marks both the one-year anniversary of COVID-19 in Mississippi and the federal response to the pandemic. In a speech last night, President Joe Biden recalled the struggles and isolation felt across the nation.

“Photos and videos from 2019 feel like they were taken in another era,” Biden said. “The last vacation, the last birthday with friends, the last holiday with extended family. While it was different for everyone, we all lost something. A collective suffering, a collective sacrifice. A year filled with the loss of life, and the loss of living for all of us.”

Mississippi has felt that suffering no less than other parts of the country. The Mississippi State Department of Health reports that 6,883 Mississippians have lost their lives to the disease so far while almost 300,000 residents, 10% of the state’s population, have contracted the virus.

The March of COVID-19

In a March 8 press briefing, officials from MSDH discussed how the pandemic progressed over the last year, and what we can expect moving forward.

The United States saw its first reported case of the virus on Jan. 21, 2020, and by February it had gained the moniker COVID-19. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the virus a global pandemic. “It was coincidentally at that time when Mississippi reported its first case,” State Epidemiologist Paul Byers said.

Mississippi suffered its first reported death from the disease on March 19, a citizen over the age of 60. “So really, that was the beginning of our first wave in Mississippi. This stage was marked by “significant impact in our long-term care settings with about 50% of our deaths occurring among LTC residents at that point,” Byers said.

In May, MSDH received its first report of multi-system inflammatory syndrome, a COVID-19 complication seen in infants.

The weeks after July 4 marked the second wave, which “far exceeded in case numbers and deaths what we saw with the initial wave in March and April,” Byers said.

It was during this second wave that reports began circulating of outbreaks among Mississippi legislators, which constituted the largest number of infected state legislators in the country at that point.

The third wave began in November, and saw the largest outbreaks yet, including the first report of a new COVID-19 variant inside Mississippi.

“It was during that third wave that we've had so far that we actually saw our peak number of hospitalizations on any given day at over 1,400 hospitalizations reported out,” Byers said. “We saw a peak number of cases on January 8. And more than 3,500 cases were reported as actually occurring on that day. That was also when we saw our peak number of deaths with 57 deaths occurring on one day, January 15th of 2021.”

Looking Forward

Moving through March 2021 and beyond, Byers is hopeful for lower cases and deaths as more Mississippians receive vaccine doses over the coming weeks and months.

“We are continuing to see downward trends over these last few weeks,” Byers said. “If you look at our trends, we continue to see some declines in the overall number of cases that are reported and the number of deaths. “We're seeing our syndromic surveillance, which is emergency department visits for individuals with COVID like illness, those are on the decline.”

“When we look at our overall hospitalizations and ICU use for COVID-related illnesses and ventilator uses for COVID-related illnesses, all of these indicators are on the way down,” he said.

State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs discussed vaccination efforts throughout the state, noting that the first shots in arms began on Dec. 14.

“December 14th was not the culmination of a year's worth of research; it was the culmination of over a decades worth of research into a new and exciting technology to create vaccines from messenger RNA,” Dobbs said. “We were very fortunate that when the COVID pandemic hit us, that the vaccine makers were ready set to ship for their messenger RNA technology from flu and other infections and apply it for use with COVID. And for that reason, we have mRNA technology.”

Dobbs: Vaccines are Safe

In addressing public concerns about the vaccines’ swift development, Dobbs gave assurances about their safety and efficacy.

“We were able to pull together a vaccine and have it produced in almost a miraculous sort of fashion, but the research behind it goes back many, many years,” he said. And the depth of the research, as far as the safety and efficacy meets the same standards as other vaccines that we take every day—the flu shot, the pneumonia shot, the shingles vaccine. Really phenomenal, exciting developments.”

Dobbs noted those who are vaccinated may soon practice some semblance of social normalcy. “We're seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. CDC released new guidance today that says if you are going to do something with other people who are vaccinated, you can do social events or be around other folks without a mask, if you're all vaccinated,” he said.

Dobbs curbed his optimism with caution, however, discussing possible challenges ahead.

“We have viral variants,” he said. “We have variants that are more contagious and maybe some that are going to make the vaccine less effective. I just want to reiterate how important it is to do these approaches in tandem—vaccination and prevention.

“Although there is not a statewide mandate right now, most of those are going to be local as they exist, all over the state I've seen over the past week people continue to show prudent behavior by wearing masks in public, and I just want us to keep that up.”

“I'm proud of Mississippi,” Dobbs said. “I'm proud of what we're doing. Let's keep our foot on the accelerator, pushing COVID down so that we can get back to full normal before too long.”

Email Reporting Fellow Julian Mills at [email protected].