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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.

(Jackson, Miss.) – On Tuesday, March 17, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba will sign three executive orders in a direct effort to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 Coronavirus.

The function of the executive orders will serve to do the following:

• Declare a state of civil emergency in the City of Jackson

• Close all non-essential city government offices and require all non-essential city employees to work remotely

• Prohibit gatherings of more than 50 people and limit gatherings of fewer than 50 people in the City of Jackson

The state of civil emergency and limitations on public gatherings will take place immediately on Monday morning, March 16, 2020. Remote work for all non-essential personnel will go into effect at 1:00 pm.

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.