Lafayette County Sees Biggest One-Day Jump of COVID Cases to Date

By Alyssa Schnugg

News editor

alyssa.schnugg@hottytoddy.com

Lafayette County is still seeing high numbers of new COVID-19 cases, with the Mississippi State Department of Health reporting 251 new cases in Lafayette County – the biggest one-day jump since the virus found its way into the county in March 2020.

In the last week, the county has gained 947 new cases and six deaths, bringing totals since March 2020 to 13,119 cases and 158 deaths.

On Sunday, there were 50 patients in Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi with COVID-19, nine of those were in the ICU.

The Oxford School District continues to see high numbers of COVID-19 among staff and students.

During the week of Jan. 17-23, there was a total of 261 new cases – 50 teachers and staff and 211 students. There are currently 396 students and seven teachers out of school due to being quarantined.

There is no mask mandate for the Oxford School District currently. A group of parents recently started an online petition asking the Board to reconsider not having a mask mandate. As of Tuesday, 550 people have signed the petition.

The Lafayette County School District reports its cases to the MSDH, which has not updated its school reports since Jan. 14.

The district evaluates its mask mandate policy on a week-to-week basis. Currently, the district remains at Red Level, which means the district is seeing a high number of new cases. All students and teachers/staff are required to wear a mask this week.

The University of Mississippi is reporting today there are 133 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported on campus – 73 students, 42 staff members and 18 faculty members.

One student is in isolation and no students are being quarantined in student housing.

Over the past seven days, the university reports 140 new cases, up from 122 new cases the previous week.