COVID cases steadily declining in Mississippi

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) —  At one point, Mississippi health officials were reporting well over a thousand new COVID-19 cases a day.

But in recent weeks, the numbers have gone down.

Hospitalizations are also down, along with the number of people in I.C.U.’s.

“We will continue to see little upticks here and there,” said Baptist Golden Triangle Chief Medical Officer Dr. James Martin. “I do think it will continue to trend down. But there will be times where you will have some positives here and there. So we need to be cognoscente of the guidelines, continue to social distance when we can. Wear our masks when we can not social distance.”

Baptist Golen Triangle has 18 I.C.U. beds, where five COVID-19 patients currently are receiving care. The key here is there are several beds in critical care open, which hasn’t been the case.

While Baptist can expand its capabilities if needed, Martin hopes people will do their part to keep hospital beds open.

“It is probably first nature to say hey we are better we can stop that,” said Martin. “We are getting past it we need to continue to do what we’ve been doing, stay the course let’s move forward and we will have this beat in no time.”

Martin is also pleased with how the hospital has responded to the pandemic.

“There’s a lot of things you read out there that are not accurate especially here in Mississippi,” said Martin. “We are doing well we’ve had a lot of support. Baptist is a big hospital and we’ve done real well fighting this disease. I think we will continue that, our staffing has been good we’ve had a good plan at Baptist. I think everything is headed in the right direction.”

For the latest numbers here in Mississippi, click here.