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NATCHEZ — Adams County had 81 active COVID-19 cases as of Thursday, which local officials say is the highest rate ever in the county.

With Thursday’s Mississippi State Department of Health COVID-19 report, Adams County’s numbers increased by eight cases to 340 confirmed COVID-19 cases since Wednesday’s reported number of 332 in the county. Adams County’s death toll is now 19 and local officials are reporting larger numbers of positive cases in the county in recent days.

Of Adams County’s cases, 44 were residents of long-term care facilities and 11 residents of long-term care facilities died with the disease.

On Thursday, Adams County Emergency Management Agency Director Robert Bradford Sr. said Adams County had 81 active cases, which is up from 70 active cases in Adams County on Wednesday.

“We’ve never been this high before,” said Bradford of the active cases that usually hover around 15 to 20 active cases. “Continue to wear your mask and social distance.”

Statewide, MSDH reported 703 new cases of COVID-19 and 16 virus-related deaths in Mississippi on Thursday.

MSDH reports three of the latest recorded deaths occurred between June 28 and July 8, including one from Adams County, and were only recently confirmed to have been COVID-19 related with death certificate reports.

Mississippi’s total of COVID-19 cases since March 11 now stands at 33,591 with 2,882 deaths.

MSDH officials said new cases are counted per individual who tests positive for COVID-19. If a person is retested after an initial positive test and receives another positive test, that does not count as an additional positive.

In addition if someone tests positive and and recovers and tests positive again, that would only count as one test/case.

“Re-tests are not counted,” said State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers. “An individual would only count once, even if they had tested positive before and recovered, then became ill again. It would count as one case.”

Also, inmates in the Adams County Correctional Facility located off of U.S. 84 in Natchez would count toward Adams County’s infection rate, Byers said.

Currently ICE is reporting no active cases at the Adams County facility, but a total of 35 cases have been reported in the facility with no deaths.

Statewide, MSDH reports 110 long-term care facilities such as nursing homes in the state now have active outbreaks and 49 new COVID-19 cases where an outbreak is defined as one or more cases among residents or staff.

Mississippi Hospitals had 686 COVID-19 patients on Thursday.

More details of COVID-19 in the state, along with preventive steps to take against coronavirus and statewide testing locations, are online at http://HealthyMS.com/covid-19.

The Mississippi Coronavirus Hotline is the best way to get your questions about COVID-19 answered. Call 877-978-6453 from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week.

Cases and Deaths by County

Totals of all reported cases since March 11, including those in long-term care (LTC) facilities.

County	Total Cases	Total Deaths	Total LTC Facility Cases	Total LTC Facility Deaths
Adams	340	19	44	11
Alcorn	85	2	1	1
Amite	106	3	13	2
Attala	375	24	89	19
Benton	42	0	1	0
Bolivar	380	18	36	6
Calhoun	147	5	23	4
Carroll	173	11	45	9
Chickasaw	292	19	36	11
Choctaw	75	4	0	0
Claiborne	293	10	43	8
Clarke	214	25	19	9
Clay	255	11	2	1
Coahoma	215	6	0	0
Copiah	631	15	29	3
Covington	419	5	2	0
Desoto	1818	18	20	5
Forrest	939	43	95	29
Franklin	49	2	3	1
George	102	3	1	0
Greene	108	10	34	6
Grenada	535	7	43	4
Hancock	138	13	9	4
Harrison	1040	14	96	7
Hinds	2697	48	149	17
Holmes	573	41	98	20
Humphreys	159	10	18	6
Issaquena	10	1	0	0
Itawamba	141	8	34	7
Jackson	727	17	46	5
Jasper	267	6	1	0
Jefferson	117	3	0	0
Jefferson Davis	116	4	3	1
Jones	1173	49	157	34
Kemper	180	14	38	9
Lafayette	437	4	42	1
Lamar	502	7	3	2
Lauderdale	942	81	202	52
Lawrence	199	2	0	0
Leake	613	20	3	0
Lee	586	21	65	14
Leflore	522	56	173	41
Lincoln	509	35	111	26
Lowndes	526	13	25	6
Madison	1382	36	135	18
Marion	313	12	15	2
Marshall	269	3	6	0
Monroe	436	35	99	29
Montgomery	149	3	0	0
Neshoba	1022	74	102	27
Newton	357	10	7	1
Noxubee	275	8	15	3
Oktibbeha	568	28	130	18
Panola	399	6	2	1
Pearl River	276	32	50	12
Perry	76	4	0	0
Pike	470	20	41	10
Pontotoc	326	6	3	1
Prentiss	112	3	24	3
Quitman	89	1	0	0
Rankin	1035	15	33	0
Scott	792	15	14	2
Sharkey	42	0	1	0
Simpson	373	3	2	0
Smith	234	12	52	8
Stone	73	2	2	1
Sunflower	452	8	1	0
Tallahatchie	166	4	3	1
Tate	323	13	28	9
Tippah	144	11	0	0
Tishomingo	92	1	2	0
Tunica	119	3	12	2
Union	238	11	20	8
Walthall	226	7	2	1
Warren	553	20	39	9
Washington	643	10	13	1
Wayne	554	16	31	3
Webster	128	11	52	10
Wilkinson	95	9	5	2
Winston	287	11	34	8
Yalobusha	193	8	35	7
Yazoo	543	6	20	2
Total	33,591	1,204	2,882	580