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NATCHEZ — On Wednesday, Mississippi State Department of Health reported 32 new cases of COVID in Adams County.

That number ties the single-day high of COVID cases reported in the county during the pandemic.

In addition, the state reported 31 new cases of COVID in Adams County on Thursday, equalling a spike of 63 new COVID-19 cases reported in two days in Adams County.

Dr. Lee England, a Natchez physician and former chairman of the COVID-19 Task Force, said he had not noticed a surge until hearing the numbers reported by the state.

“I’ve been personally looking for another wave to come through with the British variant in the county. … I don’t know if that is what may have caused it,” England said. “I’ve been reading about it and the British variant is considerably more contagious than the traditional coronavirus. It is also said to be a more severe disease. … I don’t know if we are coming up on another big spike or an isolated spike. You have to watch what the trends are.”

During a Wednesday press conference with Mississippi State Department of Health officials, Dr. Paul Byers, epidemiologist, said it is important that counties experiencing large COVID-19 outbreaks take proper precautions.

“If we are seeing an outbreak, we want to make sure that we limit the impact of it on the larger community,” he said.

With the change in cases, Adams County Emergency Management Director Robert Bradford said he would ask the Board of Supervisors to revisit the countywide mask mandate, which expires on May 1, at the next board meeting on May 3.

Earlier this month, Bradford presented the Adams County Board of Supervisors with two options, one to extend the county mask mandate until June 1 and one to retire it on May 1 while continuing to restrict the number of people that can gather in county-owned facilities.

The majority of supervisors opted to retire the mask mandate on May 1 with Supervisor Ricky Gray voting against retiring it.

England said Thursday he is supportive of Bradford’s recommendation to continue the mask mandate until June 1.

“This pandemic is not over,” England said.