Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Adams County added another COVID-19 death on Thursday night, officials said.

Adams County Coroner James Lee said he pronounced an 80-year-old Adams County woman dead late Thursday night at Merit Health Natchez.

Adams County’s COVID-19 death toll stood at 28 in Friday’s Mississippi State Department of Health COVID-19 report, and Thursday’s death once confirmed by MSDH will bring the county’s death toll to 29 since the pandemic began in March.

“Today we have 84 active cases,” said Neifa Hardy, liaison for the Adams County Emergency Management Office on Friday.

As of Friday’s statewide report Adams County has recorded 699 confirmed COVID-19 cases and Hardy said of those, approximately 581 people had recovered from the disease.

Friday’s statewide report recorded 874 new COVID-19 cases in the state with 24 new deaths. Since the beginning of the pandemic in March, the state has recorded 76,323 COVID-19 cases and 2,214 deaths have been recorded, according to Friday’s MSDH report.

In recent weeks, the state has seen increasingly high COVID-19 numbers in the 1,000 new cases per day range in daily reports, with a few lower numbers in recent days.

On Monday, the Adams County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to extend for another 30 days the county’s COVID-19 emergency declaration.

A mask mandate for the county was extended until Sept. 8 requiring people to wear face masks or facial coverings when going out in to public places where social distancing is not possible, Hardy said.

Earlier this month, Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson dissolved the City of Natchez COVID-19 Task Force and rolled it into the Adams County Emergency Operations Center’s COVID-19 Task Force, which is the states designated emergency agency for COVID-19 in Adams County.

“Gibson wanted to make sure that we are all on the same sheet of music operating under one umbrella making the same decisions,” Adams County Emergency Operations Director Robert Bradford Sr. told supervisors of Gibson’s dissolving the Natchez COVID-19 Task Force. “Most of the members are supposed to be on the EOC anyway minus a few here and there to come under the umbrella of the Emergency Operations Center so we can be able to handle this pandemic as a unit.”

Bradford said the first combined Task Force meeting would be held next week.

“It is going to be in person or you can call in,” Bradford said. “We will be at the Safe Room for the first in-person meeting to be held of the combined Natchez Adams County Emergency Operations Center.”

Meanwhile, Hardy said the EOC has been busy tracking numbers and working with schools to prepare them for opening in the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are working with the schools as they are opening … getting them some PPE in preparing for opening at ACCS and Cathedral,” Hardy said. “We are also working with Headstart and of course the daycare centers and everybody and trying to distribute PPE to the necessary schools that are going to be open including Headstart, which will be here today to pick up their supplies.”

PPE supplies Hardy said the EOC is distributing include hand sanitizers, masks, gloves and thermometers, if available.

The PPE are supplied through funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Hardy said.

Free COVID-19 testing was still scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 25, at the Adams County Safe Room, 323 Liberty Road, Natchez, despite the threat of possible storms associated with tropical depressions, Hardy said on Friday.

MSDH, has expanded its guidelines and is now recommending testing for anyone with known or potential exposure to someone confirmed with the virus, who feel they should be tested must first go through an online free screening at: www.umc.edu/covidscreening. Those without a smartphone can call (601) 496-7200.

Those meeting the criteria above will be given an appointment.

At the collection site, providers wearing protective gear will come to the vehicle window to retrieve specimens for testing to be performed at the MSDH Public Health Lab. Those being tested are not permitted to leave their vehicle.

UMMC will notify those tested of the results and give further instructions.

Also from noon to 7 p.m. Monday, the Mississippi State Department of Health will host drive-through COVID-19 testing for Mississippi teachers and staff at the Adams County health department office at 417 U.S. 61, Natchez.

Any K-12 teacher, staff or administrator can be tested for free. No appointment is necessary.

 

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	699	28	46	12
Alcorn	498	6	12	1
Amite	259	6	14	2
Attala	568	25	90	20
Benton	183	1	2	0
Bolivar	1310	42	72	11
Calhoun	445	9	23	4
Carroll	279	11	45	9
Chickasaw	540	20	36	11
Choctaw	147	4	0	0
Claiborne	420	15	43	9
Clarke	403	28	31	9
Clay	442	14	2	1
Coahoma	895	14	75	2
Copiah	1006	30	30	4
Covington	682	17	8	3
De Soto	4185	37	49	9
Forrest	1976	59	118	34
Franklin	164	3	3	1
George	666	11	5	2
Greene	282	14	35	6
Grenada	892	28	83	15
Hancock	448	18	8	4
Harrison	2984	43	149	16
Hinds	6150	132	326	56
Holmes	995	50	98	20
Humphreys	321	12	20	6
Issaquena	87 *	2	0	0
Itawamba	469	13	47	8
Jackson	2696	53	74	7
Jasper	454	12	1	0
Jefferson	209	8	8	2
Jefferson Davis	263	7	3	1
Jones	2041	68	174	35
Kemper	255	14	38	9
Lafayette	1133	27	95	19
Lamar	1330	24	8	3
Lauderdale	1588	101	212	58
Lawrence	372	9	18	1
Leake	834	27	4	0
Lee	1916	46	118	20
Leflore	1172	70	185	44
Lincoln	913	46	129	29
Lowndes	1200	47	92	28
Madison	2693	79	220	39
Marion	739	24	48	6
Marshall	873	11	18	3
Monroe	950	56	147	44
Montgomery	383	11	25	6
Neshoba	1367	97	109	36
Newton	616	13	10	2
Noxubee	502	13	17	4
Oktibbeha	1256	45	184	29
Panola	1200	20	14	2
Pearl River	660	45	66	19
Perry	277	9	0	0
Pike	1062	39	74	19
Pontotoc	955	9	6	1
Prentiss	545	12	31	3
Quitman	287	2	0	0
Rankin	2556	45	115	11
Scott	1065	21	15	3
Sharkey	230	7	42	6
Simpson	876	38	93	19
Smith	441	13	54	8
Stone	278	9	28	3
Sunflower	1177	32	31	7
Tallahatchie	595	11	9	2
Tate	815	31	32	12
Tippah	478	15	1	0
Tishomingo	503	16	93	8
Tunica	417	9	12	2
Union	813	19	38	11
Walthall	541	23	67	12
Warren	1236	39	101	19
Washington	1884	56	75	16
Wayne	825	21	58	10
Webster	279	13	52	11
Wilkinson	247	14	8	4
Winston	674	18	40	11
Yalobusha	342	10	35	7
Yazoo	915	18	29	4
Total	76,323	2,214	4,626	930