SOUTHAVEN, Miss. — Southaven Mayor Darren Musslewhite fired back at Mississippi state officials over COVID-19 cases.
This came after Governor Tate Reeves said Desoto County has more cases than any other county in the state. An infectious disease specialist spoke with WREG-TV and said despite how you spin it, cases everywhere are on the rise. In Desoto County’s case, he encouraged people to take the necessary steps to stay safe if they want to flatten that curve.
In a Facebook post titled ‘setting the record straight for Desoto County’, Musslewhite did just that, when it comes to COVID cases in the county. This after Reeves and the state’s chief health officer made comments in regard to the substantial increase in cases.
“It is a county that over the two-week period of the day that we looked at had more positive counties than any other county in the state,” Reeves said.
Dr. Thomas Dobbs, State Health Officer, said Desoto County is on fire. He went on to say that the county is red-hot cases and said he would not go out if he lived in the county.
Reeves said over a two-week period, Desoto County saw more than 900 cases, more than any other county in the state. The governor said it is a few dozen fewer than the Jackson metropolitan area, which consists of Madison, Rankin, and Hinds counties.
But Mayor Musslewhite said the information is “misleading.”
In his post, he said, “Considering DeSoto County’s adjacency to Shelby County, Tennessee, we are by far the most heavily and densely-populated county in Mississippi totaling 1,121,000 people, more than double the population of the Jackson-area counties quoted by our governor.”
Musslewhite also claimed many of the people in the case count do not live in the county and only test there due to proximity. Baptist Hospital’s Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Steven Threlkeld said while he can not confirm whether non-residents are indeed included in the case count, he knows the virus knows no boundaries.
“Those adjacent counties have impacts on each other and those things we have to watch out for because that can play a role in strategy on how you do things,” Threlkeld said.
According to Mississippi Department of Health, Desoto County has a little more than 8,700 total cases, and as of last week, a positivity rate of 16.2%. As far as hospital capacity, 10 of the county’s 48 I-C-U beds are occupied by COVID patients with only one I-C-U bed available.
“Some of these areas are in a situation that is extremely concerning and the relativity between them and among them is far and less of an issue compared to the global problem that we face together,” Threlkeld said.
Mayor Musslewhite said he still recommends everyone take every precaution to stay safe including social distancing, proper hygiene, and wearing masks when you can’t practice social distancing.
