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NATCHEZ — A brother and sister from Natchez died of COVID-19 deaths, Adams County Coroner James Lee said Monday.

On Friday, a 73-year-old woman died with the disease and her 69-year-old brother died the following Sunday, Lee said.

“I’ve seen an increase in COVID deaths in Adams County in the past month and its very scary to me,” he said. “My granddaughter remains hospitalized in North Jackson due to the coronavirus at age 25. I won’t lie. I’m very afraid of this virus and what I see. I just wish we take this thing seriously.”

The Mississippi State Department of Health reported total of 38 confirmed COVID-19 deaths for Adams County on Thursday and 39 deaths on Monday.

Adams County Emergency Management Director Robert Bradford said in a Monday meeting of the Adams County Board of Supervisors that a total of 38 active COVID-19 cases are being tracked in the county.

Adams County has a mandate that is still in effect until Oct. 31, Bradford said.

“We’re doing well and our numbers continue to go down,” he said. “We’re still under our mask mandate until Oct. 31. We have another EOC meeting on Wednesday and we’ll look at whether we need to extend that based on our current numbers and projections and bring that back to the board.”

Two Adams County supervisors said they would like to end the mask mandate before its expiration on Oct. 31 after Gov. Tate Reeves relaxed some COVID-19 restrictions last week.

Supervisor Wes Middleton said he believed residents in Adams County were smart enough to protect themselves without mask wearing being mandatory to which Supervisor Kevin Wilson agreed.

“We should strongly urge mask wearing but I personally would like to see the ‘mandate’ word dropped. I believe our residents are smart enough and educated enough to do what they need to do to protect themselves and everyone around them,” Middleton said.

Reeves let a statewide order expire on Wednesday last week except in schools and in certain professions that could be super spreaders.

“The governor said we should continue to do what is best in our communities and I believe what is best is to continue wearing masks and washing our hands,” Supervisor Ricky Gray said. “As community leaders, it is our job to try and keep everyone safe in our community. … People are listening to the governor and only hearing what they want to hear.”

Later in the meeting, Wilson said he too was tired of the mask mandate and asked the public to hold out until Oct. 31.

“I want to ask the public to please bear with us on the mask mandate. I know a lot of people are tired of wearing the masks. I know I am but public safety is our number one concern,” he said.

The board took no action concerning the mask mandate in Monday’s meeting.

Cases and deaths by county:

 

County	Total Cases	Total Deaths	Total LTC Facility Cases	Total LTC Facility Deaths
Adams	971	39	48	13
Alcorn	860	11	18	2
Amite	355	10	15	2
Attala	691	25	90	20
Benton	248	3	4	0
Bolivar	1902	71	216	28
Calhoun	545	12	25	4
Carroll	332	12	45	9
Chickasaw	719	24	44	13
Choctaw	189	6	1	0
Claiborne	477	16	43	9
Clarke	626	48	90	25
Clay	613	20	19	3
Coahoma	1189	31	86	5
Copiah	1247	33	70	4
Covington	847	25	33	9
De Soto	5825	70	73	14
Forrest	2656	75	175	41
Franklin	204	3	4	1
George	822	14	34	6
Greene	405	17	38	6
Grenada	1127	36	109	20
Hancock	624	22	14	4
Harrison	4097	76	255	31
Hinds	7295	163	443	66
Holmes	1112	60	101	20
Humphreys	382	15	21	6
Issaquena	106	3	0	0
Itawamba	920	24	83	17
Jackson	3754	70	77	7
Jasper	602	15	1	0
Jefferson	246	10	12	3
Jefferson Davis	354	11	3	1
Jones	2597	81	183	37
Kemper	294	15	39	9
Lafayette	2269	41	123	28
Lamar	1876	37	32	11
Lauderdale	2123	127	260	74
Lawrence	444	14	26	2
Leake	980	38	26	5
Lee	3046	73	172	33
Leflore	1465	82	191	45
Lincoln	1156	53	142	32
Lowndes	1644	58	98	33
Madison	3405	90	238	45
Marion	887	40	90	13
Marshall	1128	22	31	6
Monroe	1294	70	169	51
Montgomery	491	21	49	9
Neshoba	1647	106	125	37
Newton	800	25	39	8
Noxubee	572	16	20	4
Oktibbeha	1854	53	189	31
Panola	1548	31	15	3
Pearl River	952	54	80	22
Perry	441	21	20	7
Pike	1261	54	97	27
Pontotoc	1330	17	16	1
Prentiss	898	19	48	3
Quitman	399	5	0	0
Rankin	3458	80	173	22
Scott	1185	27	21	3
Sharkey	268	14	43	8
Simpson	1087	47	108	19
Smith	556	15	54	8
Stone	395	13	49	8
Sunflower	1515	47	78	12
Tallahatchie	790	24	29	7
Tate	1041	38	44	13
Tippah	736	18	39	0
Tishomingo	725	39	96	26
Tunica	507	15	15	2
Union	1049	24	46	11
Walthall	606	26	67	13
Warren	1431	51	119	25
Washington	2319	84	139	30
Wayne	934	21	59	10
Webster	348	13	52	11
Wilkinson	310	18	20	5
Winston	763	19	40	11
Yalobusha	453	14	35	7
Yazoo	1084	33	71	12
Total	100,703	3,013	6,205	1,228