As of June 11, 100% of all residents and staff of the 211 nursing homes in Mississippi have been tested for COVID-19. That is during the past 90 days, when only 7% of the state's residents, overall, hav been tested for the virus.
Nursing homes are considered high risk locations because their residents are older or in poor health. Even one case of COVID-19 in a facility among residents or employees is considered an outbreak.
This aggressive effort came last month as part of a reopening strategy.
A total of 13,911 nursing residents and 17,324 staff members were tested for COVID-19 during a 14-day period in the last two weeks of May. The Mississippi Public Health Lab and the University of Mississippi Medical Center tested a total of 26,549 individuals during that period, with 676 testing positive for COVID-19.
“We have been tracking outbreaks in nursing homes since we first saw the first COVID case in Mississippi on March 11,” said Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs. “That has been a very vulnerable population that has shown to be more susceptible to severe illness and death from COVID.”
Dobbs said an interesting finding from the nursing home testing was that many of the positive cases in residents presented with mild symptoms, not the severe symptoms of fever or shortness of breath as originally identified as the most common symptom of COVID-19.
Dobbs said completing the testing strategy was a herculean effort conducted by the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) and the Mississippi National Guard.
“We’ve been very fortunate to work with some incredible partners through the overall COVID response, and this is an example of how much we can accomplish when we work together,” he said.
