NATCHEZ, Miss. — Adams County supervisors today voted down a proposal to reinstate the mask mandate that expired Saturday as COVID surged this past week. About 100 more people in Adams County have been confirmed to be infected by the virus since April 24.
The weekly spike is the worst the county has experienced since January to make Adams County’s seven-day incidence rate the highest of Mississippi’s 82 counties, according to data compiled by the state Department of Health.
The new spike has reportedly been attributed to an outbreak of COVID at the Adams County Correctional Center, the private prison outside Natchez that holds detainees for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Supervisor Ricky Gray urged the county board today to reinstate the Natchez-Adams County mask mandate, which supervisors let expire Saturday, but board colleagues turned him down in a 3-2 vote.
“I think it was a big mistake to lift the mask mandate,” Gray said. “If we’re going by data, then we’ve got a serious problem in Adams County when it comes to COVID.”
Adams County board President Angela Hutchins sided with Gray, but Warren Gaines was the swing vote to join fellow supervisors Wes Middleton and Kevin Wilson against keeping the mask-wearing requirement in place through May.
At least 98 new cases have sprung up in Adams County since April 24, the highest weekly spike since the week ending Jan. 9, when 122 new cases were confirmed for that week, according to the Department of Health.
Pointing to the increase in numbers, Adams County Emergency Management Director Brad Bradford today asked the Board of Supervisors to consider reinstating the expired mask mandate. He could not confirm where the new COVID cases are coming from.
A total of 2,571 Adams County residents have been infected by the coronavirus since March 2020, when statistics began to be compiled as the worldwide pandemic struck Mississippi. As of today, 82 county residents have died from the disease, but no COVID deaths have been reported here since late March.
Gaines urged people to continue wearing masks if they want assurances they’re protected from the highly contagious respiratory disease, but he said a government order is impractical.
“Just because you have a mask mandate, that’s not going to make people put on a mask. … Mandate is just a word. It’s not an enforcement,” he said.
Wilson expressed concerns about those who resist getting vaccinated to be protected from COVID-19.
“The rest of us, we want to live our lives,” Wilson said, as he voiced opposition to the mask mandate.
About 26 percent of the estimated 30,000 Adams County residents have been fully vaccinated, according to the Department of Health, which has been conducting drive-through COVID vaccinations in recent months to inoculate the public. However, the number of people getting the shots has declined in recent weeks.
This new surge of COVID cases comes after three months of precipitously falling counts as low as just two confirmed for the week ending April 24.
While Adams County’s COVID swell might be largely at the prison, Hutchins noted the general public is gathering together and traveling more to make it more conducive for the coronavirus to spread. “I know it’s coming back,” she said.
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