COVID-19 numbers on the rise throughout Mississippi

BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) - New COVID-19 cases reached 1,100 Wednesday in Mississippi for the first time since mid-February. Dr. Jimmy Dimitriades is now warning his patients to take this latest spike seriously.

“Keep watching,” Dr. Dimitriades said. “It is a little concerning that it has gone up, and we expect it to continue to go up. That’s what every instance in the past has done.”

Memorial Health has seen an increase in positive COVID-19 cases throughout the system, both inpatient and outpatient over the last two weeks. 505 positive cases have already been reported a little more than halfway through the month of June. Only 388 cases were reported for the entire month of May.

“Those numbers are up from a couple of weeks before,” Dimitriades said. “We do need to take it seriously, even though the number of folks with this variant of COVID are not getting as sick as previously, there are some who do.”

Health leaders instructing patients who feel sick to get tested, try not to spread it, and to avoid panicking.

“This isn’t the one we need to fill up the lines in the emergency room,” Dimitriades added. “This one doesn’t seem to have quite the mortality as previous variants like the Delta variant did. We’re not seeing the number of COVID pneumonias and respiratory issues we have in the past.”

Hospitals are also seeing an increase in respiratory bugs like RSV and other viruses, something they haven’t seen much of in previous years.

“It’s a kind of a record high for (those) illnesses,” said Dimitriades. “June is usually a quiet season for respiratory illnesses. "

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