COVID sidelines football
Two area high school teams were sidelined this past Friday night due to players quarantined for COVID-19.
Both Philadelphia High School’s game at Madison-Ridgeland Academy and Choctaw Central’s game with Lake were canceled.
Philadelphia’s game this week with Kemper County is also canceled because more than half of the team is quarantined. The Tornadoes return to action Oct. 2 at Scott Central.
Choctaw Central’s football team came off quarantine last Thursday, which left the Warriors no practice time. The Warriors will travel to Richland this Friday night.
There have been no new cases of COVID-19 among students throughout Neshoba County within the last week, according to data from the Mississippi State Department of Health. In fact, there is one less case now being reported.
The data have not been updated since Sept. 15 and specific schools are not named.
There have been 29 students in the county test positive and another seven faculty/staff, which also saw no increase.
According to MSDH, a total of six students in Neshoba County had been quarantined due to exposure during the week of Sept. 7-11.
The state does not report which specific school districts are impacted and by how much, though both the Philadelphia Public School District and Neshoba County School District have confirmed cases.
On Tuesday, the state reported only 465 new cases and 36 new deaths.
In Neshoba County, 43 cases have been identified in the last week, bringing the total here to 1,548.
In total, 94,021 Mississippians have either been confirmed or presumed to have COVID-19, with 2,846 total deaths.
As of Tuesday, the state reported 104 COVID-related deaths in Neshoba County, up two from 102 last week. There have been 115 cases in long-term care facilities in Neshoba County and 37 deaths.
The MSDH is reporting statewide that hospitalizations have declined from 524 to 507 since last week, with ICU patients down from 178 to 147. Ventilator usage dropped from 88 to 74.
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians has reported a total of 1,106 positive cases among Tribal members.
The Tribe only saw an increase of eight positive cases within the last week. The Tribe has tested 4,898 members, with 3,706 negative results. Of the positive cases, 1,027 have recovered, 78 have died and four are still hospitalized.