With COVID-19 cases expected to rise throughout the holiday season, Mayor Toby Barker has extended all executive orders – including mask mandates, occupancy limits and restrictions on bars and restaurants – until Jan. 16 in Hattiesburg.
Barker issued the extension on the orders, which are being continued to match Gov. Tate Reeves’s statewide orders, via Facebook on Dec. 29.
“As we kind of wait to see what the full impact of Christmas gatherings will be, we feel that this is the best approach to try and limit the spread, and to try and keep this thing controlled, especially for our healthcare community,” Barker said. “Jan. 16 is around when our students will come back to start their spring semester, and we would love to loosen things up if we’re seeing some positive signs by then.”
Under the extension, masks or face coverings are still required when entering any public place or establishment. Bars and restaurants must close inside services at 10 p.m. but may continue to sell items via to-go and delivery means after that time, and alcohol can be sold through 11 p.m. in accordance with state mandates.
As of the morning of Dec. 29, total COVID tests in the Hattiesburg-area health system – which includes Merit Health Wesley, Forrest General Hospital, Southeast Mississippi Rural Health Initiative, Hattiesburg Clinic and Moffitt Health Center – stood at 106,389. Of those, 12,872 have been returned positive and 93,341 have been returned negative, with 176 pending tests.
“Of course, many of our testing centers were closed Christmas Day and the days following Christmas, so there are not as many tests out there waiting to be (conducted),” Barker said. “That’s why that ‘pending tests’ number is a little bit lower than usual.”
One hundred and four patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 – slightly under the average of 104.5 over the last 16 days – and two patients were under investigation. Thirty patients were in the Intensive Care Unit, slightly under the average of 30.93 over the last 14 days, with no patients in the ICU under investigation for COVID.
The Hattiesburg metro area saw six new deaths over the holiday weekend, including four in Lamar County and two in Forrest County. So far in total, there have been 96 deaths in Forrest County and 59 in Lamar County.
The area saw 293 new positive cases from Dec. 24-Dec. 28. Forrest County has seen a total of 4,712 positive cases and Lamar County has seen 3,646, for a total of 8,358 in the metro area.
“Similar to Thanksgiving, the total impact of Christmas gatherings will not be seen for two to three weeks, when it comes to hospitalizations, when it comes to new infections,” Barker said. “Leading up to Thanksgiving, we were in that high 60s, low 70s (range), hospitalizations-wise.
“Over the course of the two to three weeks following Thanksgiving, we really saw that number jump to well above 70, on to 100, and then in a couple of days, over 110. We hope that we don’t see those kind of increases, because if we see those kind of increases, you’re going to take a very taxed healthcare system and really push it to the limit.”
