Gov.
Tate Reeves announces an executive order that limits seating capacity at college football stadiums in Mississippi.
Good afternoon.
Thank you all for beinghere today on Thursday,another day that hurricane is not inthe Gulf of Mexico.
So that's a goodday.
But we will continue to monitorthat as director Michelle will give usan update on that.
In just a littlewhile.We had better numbers today.
Dr Byersis here and in Dr Dobbs Stead, andhe'll talk specifically about him.
Butwe had better numbers today than we hadyesterday.
We were back under the 1000case mark on, we know on Wednesdays andThursdays and sometimes on Fridays.
Thenumbers are higher than they are on theweekends, but, um, it's good news, butit's not victory.
We have to keepworking.
We have to keep making aneffort.
We have to work together.
Andif we do, we will be able to getthrough these challenging times.
I wantyou to know that I am signing anexecutive order today to govern howcollege football stadiums will be ableto operate this fall.I know it's a topic that we constantlyget questions about.
It's somethingthat's been polarizing around thecountry.
Some conferences have optednot to make any effort to play.
Somestates have not yet put out their plans.This is an effort which we workedclosely with the university's own, toset a floor.
We took their jointrecommendations, and with a little bitof work, we put this plan together.This is the minimum that each school isrequired to do in their collegestadiums this fall to keep our playersand our Spectators safe while allowingcollege football to occur.As you know, the University of SouthernMississippi, for instance, has a gamein two weeks on a Thursday night couldperhaps be one.
The earliest footballgames that occur this fall, and thenthe Southeastern Conference isscheduled to begin on September 26th.But we wanted to put out the plans,give everyone some time to review andalso to be able to implement themfirst.
And probably most importantly,seating capacity in the bowl area willbe limited to a maximum of 25% if andonly if schools can ensure a minimum of6 ft of social distancing betweenpeople who are not in the samehousehold mask will be requiredWhenever you're walking around wheneveryou're entering or when you're exitingthe stadium, basically at all timesunless you're sitting in your seat awayfrom everyone else.
And it will behighly recommended that even if you aresitting in your seat that you continueto wear a mask when at a ball gamewe're limiting elevators to fiveindividuals per car, asking schools touse, grab and go food for concessionsand instructing them to make handsanitizer available throughout thestadium.
Clubs and sweets willbasically be governed by all of ourlimitations.
Own restaurants, Onley,essential personnel to game play willbe allowed on the sidelines, and allentry and exit gates will be open toprevent anyone from clustering.
So, inother words, if you have 40 gates inthe stadium, even though capacity islimited to 1/4 it will be required thatevery gate is open so as to ensure andlimit clustering.Lastly, and I'm sure this will not bepopular.
There will be no game daysocial gatherings outside of thestadium, rallies, parties or tailgate.I know this will not be popular, it'sno fun, and I'll miss them terriblymyself.
But it's better than otherstates prohibiting football altogether.I still rather be in the SEC with notell Gates in the Pac 12 or the Big 10with no football.
I spent the afternoontalking about these restrictions andother measures to prevent the spread oncollege campuses with our universityleaders as well as our local leaders inour college towns.
We know that we'vegot a lot of work to do there.
I knowthat one of Dr Dobbs is greatest fearsheading into the fall college studentspartying and ignoring the risk of thevirus.
It's something that we will haveto be constantly working on.
Over thecourse of the next few months,we're having cases on our collegecampuses,and that is not a surprise.What we must do is, as we see, cases iscontinue to work with Dr Dobbs and Drbuyers and his team, the leadership atthe universities to make sure thatthose who test positive are isolated.Those with whom they have come in closecontact are isolated so that we canensure that we limit the spread.I do want toe urge all of our parentsand grand parents that are watchingtoday if you have kids in college,reach out to him.
Tell him to please becareful.
Tell him to not be partyingbecause that's where so much of thespread has occurred throughout thesummer.
Are 18 to 29.
Demographichas between 17 and 18,000 cases now inour state there 1.5 times larger thanany other demographic in this state.
Soplease talk to them about being smart,about being healthy and aboutprotecting themselves, which ultimatelywill help protect their moms, theirdads, the grand moms and theirgranddad's.
I do feel hopeful that thegroup that we've got working on thiscan and will have an impactbefore dr buyers dives into today'snumbers also wanted to quickly sharethat today Mississippi will be applyingfor the additional lost wages.Assistance from the Trumpadministration will be able to use ourcurrent payments as the match, andwe'll see how it works for the next fewweeks that will be back paid throughthe beginning of August, starting in afew weeks when the process to stand upthis new program is complete.
I wanteveryone in Mississippi to know thatI'm incredibly grateful for PresidentTrump stepping in, and I hope this willhelp families in need.
I also won't toreiterate to the people of our state ifyou are unemployed and you have anopportunity to go back to your job orto get another job, please do so thesebenefits will run out.
We don't knowexactly when at this time, but there isa maximum amount of money that theadministration can legally spin on thisadditional assistance, and Ianticipated it will.
If a number ofstatesfollow our lead and apply for thisadditional assistance, it is highlylikely that the money will run out.
Soif you have a job,if you have an opportunity to go backto your job, please take thatopportunity.
Because Mississippi'smaximum unemployment benefit is $235 aweek.
That is certainlydifficult for families to get by.
Sowith that, I'm gonna turn over to DrBuyers who's gonna tell us about thenumbers today.
Thank you, Governor.
SoSo today, the Department of Health isreporting an additional 894 cases,along with 27 additional deaths.
Two ofthose deaths are from vital records ordeath certificate reviews, and thosetwo deaths occurred between July 24thand August 9th.
When you look at ourother indicators besides cases, if youlook at the numbers of cases that arereported in hospitals now we are seeingsome downward trends in those numbersof confirmed cases.
We've also seensome downward trends in the number ofindividuals who are in the I C U due tocovet.
However, we have today seeing alittle bit of an upward trend in ourindividuals who are on ventilators.
Wehope that that trend doesn't continue,but it's certainly something that weneed to watch closely.
We still have alot of outbreaks in long term caresettings, but I think that we'relooking at a point now where we maystart to see some movement in those andhopefully we'll start to see some somedecreases in the number of long termcare outbreaks over the next comingcouple of weeks.
Certainly that'ssomething that we're going to continueto watch and help those long term caresettings with support and guidance asbest we canschools, you know, we are working veryclosely with K through 12.We have set up a system throughout thestate where we have teams that areavailable from a local setting to beable to support the schools, to providethem guidance, to be able to answerquestions.
And we've started this nowfor about a couple of weeks.
And really,we've seen we've we've received almoston 100 and 50 calls from school so far.The vast majority of those calls areasking about specific situations.
Wehave a case.
What do we need to doaround it or just in general, theguidance and we've been there to helpthem walk through that guidance?
And Ihave to tell you that I have beenparticularly encouraged by the schoolsthat we've talked to the principles thesuperintendent's, that they areadhering to the Department of Health'sK through 12 guidance.
And I think thatthat that's a good thing and that we'remaking progress with that.
One of thesort of un encouraging things is thefact that many of the cases that we'reseeing in the school settings are notnecessarily transmission within theschool.Bart are in parties outside of theschool setting are in sleepoversoutside of the school setting.
And, youknow, I would encourage everybody thatif we want to continue tohave thoseschools functioning if we want tocontinue tohave on campus classes andhave those kids educated that we needto do our part outside of the schoolsetting, too, when the kids were in theclassroom, the schools for buyinglarger, doing a very good job ofkeeping those Children social distanceand wearing their mask.
But it'soutside of that school setting that wereally want toe pay attention to, andmake sure that those kids don't becomeexposed and infected outside of theschool and then bring it back into theschool.
You all know that we've set upa system of reporting from the schools,were receiving aggregate reports fromall of the schools were still onboarding that, and this week we'vewe've received about 450 schools thathave reported to us.
We're asking themto report to us on a weekly basis.
Ifwe just look at a quick snapshot of thedata for what we've had reported fromschool so far this week, we've theschools have identified almost 2000kids that they've had to quarantine asa result of exposures in the schoolsetting and about 200 individual casesthat have been reported through thissystem.
So we've still got some work todo to continue to get other schools on,boarded to report to us.
We're gonna bereleasing this data by county soon, sohang on for that.
We've still got somework to do with several of the schoolsto try toe to try to get this reportingcomplete, and so we'll be doing that.So look for that that clarity As wemove forward,colleges and universities werecontinuing to work with them veryclosely.
There are a number of casesthat have been identified in collegeand university settings.
Much of whatwe're seeing in those settings is verysimilar to what we've seen with the Kthrough 12 where it's that outsideactivities, it's the outside socialactivities.
It's going to the bars andrestaurants.
It's hanging out withfriends,and it's not continuing to do thosethings like masking and socialdistancing.
And again, I wouldencourage the college students that oneof our our prime goals To go to collegeis to receive an education.
I rememberbeing 20.
It's been a long time ago.
Umbut, you know, I would urge them if wewant to be serious about this, that wehave toe not only be serious aboutthose appropriate actions on campuswhen we're in class, but we need to dothat one more off campus as well.Because whenever anybody gets infected,not only does it impact them, itimpacts those people around him.
Andfor those individuals who are trying todo the right thing, cover exposed, itmay result in them being quarantinedfor 14 days,and we want to try to avoid that.
So Iwould encourage everybody just to keepmoving for with with doing thoseactivities that we know to do, Pleasewear a mask when you're out.
Please.Social distance stay 6 ft apart in thelong run.
That's gonna help us maintainsome of these activities that we'retrying to do.Thank you, Governor.
Thank you, DrBuyers, just to give you a few numbers.In addition to that Aziz, we talkedabout hospitalizations and patients,and I see you beds and patients onVince are aindicate is a lagging indicator.
Um,and we have been saying for weeks thatwe believe that our is our numbers comedown a few weeks later arehospitalizations will follow, and wehave We're seeing that now areconfirmed.
Patients with cove in 19 inhospital bedsreached a peak just shy of 1000.
It was852 today.
Um, are total number ofpatients that is suspected, Cove itpositive plus confirmed covert positivepeaked at approximately 12.
50.
Thatnumbers at about 10.
25 today.
So again,down 15 to 20% from the peak.
If youlook at things such as, um, patients inand I see you, this is an area where wewere very concerned about and canremain concerned.
But that numberpeaked at approximately 337 severalweeks ago, and today it was at 276 ofprobably 60 fewer patients in I C.
Urun rooms with cove it that's apositive.
So what does that mean?
Thatmeans that what we're doing is working,but that means we've got to continuedoing it.
Then we've got to be evenmore vigilant, and the next two weeksare critical.
The numbers today,Wednesday and Thursday compared to lastweek were actually up on a two dayperiod.
UH, Wednesday, Thursday, thisweek were mawr than the WednesdayThursday last week, not by a lot, butthey were up and so we hadn't seen the10 15 20% declined.
Um, it could justbe reporting, and we'll monitor itclosely.
But let's watch over the nextthree or four days because we need tocontinue to see numbers decline so thecommunity transmission is declining sothat we can continue to drivehospitalizations, another importantmeasures down.
Gov. Tate Reeves has extended Mississippi’s executive order requiring masks.
