Following a routine home test, City of Jackson Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday morning, Dec. 21, 2021, and is quarantining at home. He urges Jacksonians “to abide by the citywide mask mandate to limit the spread of the virus and to continue getting the vaccination and booster shot to limit the possibility of serious health effects.”
The omicron variant of COVID-19 is spreading rapidly across the U.S., and is driving transmission in states neighboring Mississippi, likely to outcompete the remains of delta in the state after beginning community transmission.
On Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021, Hinds County responded to the U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Mississippi Carlton W. Reeves’ Nov. 23 request to convince the court not to find it in contempt for its handling of the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond in the wake of the 2016 U.S. Department of Justice consent decree with the county.
Mississippi’s Joint Redistricting Committee has released its recommendations for the state’s four new congressional districts, and the result could be a sprawling District 2 for the only Democratic and only Black representative, Bennie Thompson, in a state that is 38% Black.
A child has died of an influenza infection for the first time since May 2020, the Mississippi State Health Department reported this week. The state reported two child deaths from influenza in 2020, but flu activity levels plummeted as residents followed social-distancing guidelines in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mississippi thus far has avoided the dramatic uptick in new cases that countries like the United Kingdom and South Africa have faced from the omicron variant of coronavirus, but state health leadership is encouraging residents to remain vigilant after detecting the variant in Mississippi.
Mississippi’s daily average COVID-19 caseload is now at its highest point since late October. Today, Dec. 9, 2021, the Mississippi State Department of Health reported 745 new cases, marking the second day in a row with more than 700 cases.
Laboratory studies of the omicron variant of COVID-19 from multiple sources reveal a dramatic decrease in neutralizing activity from prior infection with earlier variants and the available vaccines. The results provide a challenging prospect for the future of the pandemic if the variant becomes dominant, and strongly encourage a booster dose for all adults, regardless of health conditions.
U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, the second-highest ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the United States cannot rule out any options for responding to Russian aggression in Ukraine—including sending in ground troops or even a nuclear strike.
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