While Gov. Tate Reeves and the Oxford Board of Aldermen decided to lift statewide and local mask mandates on March 2, the number of active COVID-19 cases in Lafayette County has decreased over the past two weeks.
According to the Mississippi State Department of Health, there has been an average of five COVID-19 cases reported per day in Lafayette County this past week, which is a 32% decrease from the average two weeks ago.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 5,918 cases reported in the county with 1 in 9 residents having contracted the virus.
Despite the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients decreasing, 91% of ICU beds were occupied in the county as of March 18.
Since March 21, Mississippi has seen an average of 249 cases per day, which is a 46% decrease from the average of the past two weeks. At the University of Mississippi, there have been 13 confirmed cases, according to the coronavirus dashboard.
The university also reports six current COVID-19 cases, all of which are students. According to the confirmed cases reported to UM, as of March 23, there have been four additional cases reported at UM, all of them being students through contact tracing. The dashboard and confirmed cases have not been updated since then.
As cases in the state are declining, UM pharmacy students and licensed physicians are administering vaccines on campus to any students, faculty or staff. Previously, UM only allowed employees of the university to receive the vaccine on campus, but appointment availability opened to the rest of the university to make sure all doses of the vaccine were allocated.
The MSDH has administered over 1.1 million vaccines throughout Mississippi. 776,532 people have received at least one dose, while 450,752 have received both. In Lafayette County, 28,269 doses of the vaccine have been administered.
