Seven children in Mississippi were in intensive care for COVID-19 on July 13, with two of them on ventilators, according to State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs.
“Please be safe and if you are 12 or older—please protect yourself,” Dobbs wrote on Twitter.
News of the children’s hospitalizations came as Mississippi grapples with the spread of the Delta variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.
“Pretty much ALL cases in MS are Delta variant right now,” Dobbs wrote on Twitter on July 12, noting that the vast majority of the cases, deaths, and hospitalizations are occurring among the unvaccinated population.
Four of the 50 deaths in Mississippi between June 7 and July 5 involved vaccinated people.
The seven-day moving average of daily new cases in Mississippi rose to 295 on July 12, the highest since mid-March, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The state reported 12 deaths from the CCP virus on July 12, more than the total recorded in the prior 20 days.
Despite the current uptick, the state is still better off than it was during the year following the initial surge in infections in June and July 2020.
More than 1 million people in Mississippi were fully vaccinated as of July 13, according to data from the state’s Department of Health. The Delta variant at that time made up an estimated 57.6 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the United States, according to the CDC’s genomic surveillance data.
Overall in the United States, the seven-day average of daily new cases has more than doubled since July 5, according to data from The New York Times. The number of daily new cases has gone up in 48 of the 50 U.S. states in the past 14 days.
The current surge is believed to be driven by the spread of the Delta variant. Vaccine makers have also pointed to data from Israel suggesting that the efficacy of the Pfizer–BioNTech shot declines significantly after six months.
Dobbs had warned last week of a second wave of the virus.
“MSDH recommends that all Mississippians 12 years of age and older receive COVID vaccination,” Dobbs said, according to Sun Herald. “MSDH recommends that all unimmunized wear a mask when indoors in public settings.
