AP Photo/Rogelio V. SolisMississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs answers a reporter's question at Gov. Tate Reeves' coronavirus news briefing on Aug. 4, 2020. Dobbs is instructing health care providers to stop administering the J&J vaccine until federal agencies release further guidance on the vaccine.

Mississippi expects to receive larger weekly allocation of COVID-19 vaccines from the federal government in the next few weeks.

Over the last several weeks, the state has been receiving an allocation of 37,000 first doses of COVID-19 vaccine from the federal government each week.

But over the next few weeks, the weekly allocations of first doses are expected to be about 16% larger than the current allocation, said Dr. Thomas Dobbs, the state health officer, during a press briefing on Friday.

The state expects to receive an allocation of 43,000 first doses next week. The extra vaccines will go to hospitals, private clinics and other entities the Mississippi State Department of Health is partnering with.

The state has also reclaimed vaccines that were originally meant to be distributed at long-term care facilities. Walgreens and CVS Health have been vaccinating residents of long-term care facilities in the state.

Dobbs said the long-term care vaccination program in Mississippi had excess vaccine, so the state is receiving about 9,000 doses from the program and will use those doses to vaccinate Mississippi residents.

At a Thursday press conference, Gov. Tate Reeves said he hopes that Mississippi will eventually be able to administer 100,000 COVID-19 shots a week — a number that includes both first and second doses. He hopes to reach this goal during the month of February.

At the Friday press briefing, Dobbs compared the vaccine rollout to the Allied troops storming Normandy in World War II.

“We’re just off the beach right now,” he said. “We’ve got a long way to go.”

Dobbs encouraged Mississippians to continue to wear masks, practice social distancing and avoid indoor social gatherings with people we do not see often.

Dobbs also said on Friday that Mississippians can now book their drive-thru site appointment for their second dose once they have received the first dose.

Dr. Paul Byers, the state epidemiologist, said that the state is seeing some declines in its COVID-19 numbers and improvements in the number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized or in intensive care units.

But Mississippi is still seeing a lot of cases of COVID-19, Byers said.

“2000 cases in a single day reported out from the health department is still indicative of widespread transmission throughout the state,” he said on Friday. “And we are still seeing a lot of deaths.”

MSDH reported on Friday 2,186 new cases of the coronavirus and 38 new COVID-19 related deaths in the state, bringing the state’s totals to 272,662 cases and 5,983 deaths.

The state reported 60 new cases of COVID-19 in Lauderdale County, bringing the county’s total to 6,314 cases.

Lauderdale County’s total number of COVID-19 related deaths surpassed 200 on Friday. The county reported reported two new deaths on Friday, one of which occurred between Jan. 24 and 28 and one of which occurred between Dec. 5 and Jan. 22. 201 COVID-19 related deaths have been reported in the county since March.

COVID-19 case and death numbers for local counties are listed below.

Clarke County: 21 new cases; 1,554 total cases. Two additional deaths, one of which occurred between Jan. 24 and 28 and one of which occurred between Dec. 5 and Jan. 22; 64 total deaths since March.

Newton County: 11 new cases; 2,052 total cases. No additional deaths; 48 total deaths since March.

Kemper County: 12 new cases; 833 total cases. No additional deaths; 20 total deaths since March.

Neshoba County: 10 new cases; 3,546 total cases. No additional deaths; 160 total deaths since March.

MSDH presumed that 222,812 people had recovered from COVID-19 as of Jan. 24. The department also reported that there are 181 ongoing outbreaks of COVID-19 in long-term-care facilities.

case count

County	Total Cases	Total Deaths	Total LTC Facility Cases	Total LTC Facility Deaths
Adams	2199	72	72	15
Alcorn	2797	57	129	20
Amite	1058	29	54	7
Attala	1998	65	173	36
Benton	882	23	45	10
Bolivar	4272	111	226	31
Calhoun	1477	23	28	4
Carroll	1091	22	48	9
Chickasaw	1928	47	53	15
Choctaw	662	14	1	0
Claiborne	910	26	45	9
Clarke	1554	64	122	30
Clay	1708	40	27	3
Coahoma	2574	56	129	11
Copiah	2584	50	79	9
Covington	2290	73	136	39
De Soto	18239	199*	113	24
Forrest	6396	127	225	50
Franklin	716	17	40	4
George	2133	42	59	7
Greene	1169	31	52	6
Grenada	2280	74	155	32
Hancock	3107	65	69	14
Harrison	15045	216	481	65
Hinds	17419	348	797	127
Holmes	1753	68	103	20
Humphreys	873	25	34	8
Issaquena	161	6	0	0
Itawamba	2758	65	125	22
Jackson	11355	195	230	30
Jasper	1915	39	38	2
Jefferson	583	23	40	7
Jefferson Davis	923	31	8	1
Jones	7132	120	218	41
Kemper	833	20	45	9
Lafayette	5369	103	188	54
Lamar	5214	66	53	13
Lauderdale	6314	201	433	94
Lawrence	1110	17	27	2
Leake	2405	68	88	14
Lee	9241	149	215	41
Leflore	3188	114	233	52
Lincoln	3169	92	173	37
Lowndes	5679	126	256	61
Madison	8856	173	359	69
Marion	2344	74	158	24
Marshall	3673	75*	64	15
Monroe	3791	114	189	55
Montgomery	1142	36	54	9
Neshoba	3546	160	201	58
Newton	2052	48	87	15
Noxubee	1160	26	35	6
Oktibbeha	4192	87	215	36
Panola	3971	85	102	13
Pearl River	3669	109	172	33
Perry	1081	32	21	7
Pike	2794	87	125	34
Pontotoc	3880	62	78	7
Prentiss	2588	55	99	15
Quitman	730	11	0	0
Rankin	11568	228	390	61
Scott	2720	55	105	9
Sharkey	469	17	43	8
Simpson	2481	73	158	20
Smith	1374	26	60	8
Stone	1573	27	84	14
Sunflower	2995	80	117	19
Tallahatchie	1598	36	50	7
Tate	2856	64	80	19
Tippah	2567	54	116	9
Tishomingo	1996	62	102	27
Tunica	907	22	18	2
Union	3685	67	131	21
Walthall	1181	38	68	13
Warren	3839	105	169	38
Washington	5017	125	189	39
Wayne	2258	38	69	11
Webster	1001	24	58	11
Wilkinson	606	25	25	5
Winston	2115	72	122	37
Yalobusha	1282	35	82	22
Yazoo	2642	57	139	18
Total	272,662	5,983	10,199	1,899