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JACKSON (AP) — New cases of the coronavirus are steadily declining in more than 80% of Mississippi’s 82 counties, Gov. Tate Reeves said Thursday.

The Republican governor attributed the decrease to residents’ commitment to wearing masks and social distancing but also urged residents not to become complacent and to continue their efforts to slow the virus’ spread.

“The numbers are coming down, let’s be happy about that, but not let’s not rest,” Reeves said Thursday on Facebook Live. “Let’s not ignore it. Let’s fight and continue to crush this virus.”

Reeves said the state is seeing steady decreases in more than 70 counties in the state. However, he said “there’s more work to do” in six counties — Forrest, Jones, Lee, Union, Bolivar and Panola, where officials are still seeing a considerable number of positive cases.

He called on leaders in those counties to make sure that they enforce the statewide mask mandate and his executive orders, which limit crowd sizes and restaurant capacity.

The Mississippi State Department of Health reported 612 new confirmed cases and 22 deaths on Thursday, pushing the state’s total cases over the 2,000 mark, to 2,011.

Adams County’s numbers rose by five cases overnight to 647 total confirmed COVID-19 from 642 on Wednesday and the county’s death toll remains at 26. Adams County had 86 active COVID-19 cases on Monday, according to the Adams County Emergency Operations Center.

With the exception of Wednesday, when the Mississippi State Department of Health reported 1,081 new virus cases, officials have reported well under 1,000 new cases of the virus each day this week. That represents a change from the past several weeks where the state was averaging over 1,000 cases a day.

Wednesday was an outlier, a day in which officials also reported 45 deaths, one of the higher single-day death tolls the state has seen since the start of the pandemic.

Reeves said hospitalizations and deaths are a lagging indicator when it comes to measuring the spread of the virus now, because people who die from virus complications usually stay in the hospital for three to four weeks.

He added that now is the time for Mississippians to come together, regardless of political differences. He closed his remarks by saying “the virus doesn’t care who you voted for in the 2016 elections.”

“It doesn’t matter what your political affiliation is, our enemy is not one another, our enemy is the virus,” he said.

The Health Department said Thursday that Mississippi, with a population of about 3 million, has had at least 69,986 reported cases of COVID-19 as of Tuesday evening.

The true number of virus infections is thought to be far higher because many people have not been tested and studies suggest people can be infected without feeling sick. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms. For some, especially older adults and those with existing health problems, it can cause more severe or fatal illness.

Cumulative Cases and Deaths by County

Totals of all reported COVID-19 cases for 2020, including those in long-term care (LTC) facilities.

The numbers in this table are provisional. County case numbers and deaths may change as investigation finds new or additional information. The data provided below is the most current available.

County	Total Cases	Total Deaths	Total LTC Facility Cases	Total LTC Facility Deaths
Adams	647	26	46	12
Alcorn	445	5	10	1
Amite	242	6	14	2
Attala	539	25	89	20
Benton	157	1	2	0
Bolivar	1167	37	50	10
Calhoun	428	9	23	4
Carroll	263	11	45	9
Chickasaw	491	19	35	11
Choctaw	138	4	0	0
Claiborne	410	14	43	9
Clarke	355	28	27	9
Clay	406	14	2	1
Coahoma	798	13	43	2
Copiah	973	29	30	4
Covington	641	15	5	1
De Soto	3796	32	45	7
Forrest	1865	57	102	32
Franklin	137	2	3	1
George	605	9	5	2
Greene	262	13	35	6
Grenada	861	26	76	15
Hancock	414	15	8	4
Harrison	2663	36	148	15
Hinds	5803	124	278	55
Holmes	928	49	97	20
Humphreys	303	12	20	6
Issaquena	27	2	0	0
Itawamba	404	10	40	7
Jackson	2411	47	68	7
Jasper	412	9	1	0
Jefferson	197	7	8	2
Jefferson Davis	243	6	3	1
Jones	1945	62	172	35
Kemper	241	14	38	9
Lafayette	1025	20	90	15
Lamar	1246	16	8	3
Lauderdale	1458	94	210	56
Lawrence	332	8	13	1
Leake	804	27	4	0
Lee	1610	42	86	16
Leflore	963	68	184	44
Lincoln	849	43	124	28
Lowndes	1114	40	84	24
Madison	2503	72	206	37
Marion	692	21	47	6
Marshall	740	10	17	2
Monroe	839	55	146	44
Montgomery	346	7	1	1
Neshoba	1309	94	108	35
Newton	567	11	7	1
Noxubee	466	12	17	4
Oktibbeha	1145	39	177	26
Panola	1096	18	8	1
Pearl River	571	40	57	16
Perry	249	8	0	0
Pike	960	37	73	18
Pontotoc	866	9	5	1
Prentiss	462	10	28	3
Quitman	275	1	0	0
Rankin	2337	38	101	10
Scott	1017	20	15	3
Sharkey	209	7	42	6
Simpson	822	31	62	15
Smith	415	13	54	8
Stone	225	6	23	2
Sunflower	1086	28	16	4
Tallahatchie	550	11	7	2
Tate	753	30	33	12
Tippah	411	14	1	0
Tishomingo	453	9	34	2
Tunica	367	7	12	2
Union	732	17	35	8
Walthall	519	22	65	11
Warren	1151	36	95	18
Washington	1739	45	59	14
Wayne	790	21	58	10
Webster	250	13	52	11
Wilkinson	227	14	8	4
Winston	637	16	40	11
Yalobusha	318	10	35	7
Yazoo	874	13	28	3
Total	69,986	2,011	4,186	864