Vaccinations For Mississippi Elders Opening Soon, State’s Hospitals Under Stress

Vaccinations For Mississippi Elders Opening Soon, State’s Hospitals Under Stress

by Nick Judin

The new year dawns on a Mississippi in deep crisis, with the last week of 2020 breaking many key coronavirus records as the situation continues to deteriorate in the state’s hospitals. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs warned on Twitter of another record in new hospitalizations. An average of 162 Mississippians were hospitalized for COVID-19 every day for the week ending Jan. 2; the now-dwarfed summer peak’s highest weekly rate was 114.

On Tuesday, the Mississippi State Department of Health announced 1,767 new cases of COVID-19 and 91 deaths, the highest single-day report of fatalities in the pandemic so far, a record that has been repeatedly surpassed as the post-holiday surge has claimed additional lives.

On Monday, Jan. 4, Gov. Tate Reeves announced that Mississippi would be altering its COVID-19 vaccination schedule to favor older Mississippians receiving the vaccine first. Previously, a multi-tiered system pairing aging Mississippians with a broad range of essential workers aimed to provide vaccine access to those 65 and older sometime in February. Now, individuals 75 and older will be able to apply for the vaccine at private clinics as early as Jan. 10. For those 65 and older, access should begin on Jan. 17.

Dobbs told the Jackson Free Press at a Jan. 5 press event that the new guidelines target the most vulnerable populations, those disproportionately represented in the state’s hospitals. “Twelve percent of those who get diagnosed with COVID over the age of 65 die. About one in eight. That’s astounding,” Dobbs said.

Reeves pointed to the significant proportion of deaths derived from older populations. “Of the total fatalities that are marked as a result of COVID—about 4,800 total fatalities to date—3,732 of them are over the age of 65,” he said.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams told The Today Show on Tuesday that states should not let carefully targeted vaccine recipient criteria slow down the rollout of available doses. “Your headline today should be, ‘Surgeon General tells states and governors to move quickly to other priority groups,’” Adams said.

Hospital Transfers Under Scrutiny

Currently, Mississippi is operating under MSDH’s COVID-19 System of Care guidelines. As the public-health agency explained on Dec. 20, “Mississippi has reached a point where hospitals can no longer accommodate acute clinical demands.”

While the COVID-19 system-of-care orders are in effect, Mississippi has a central authority for hospital transfers for critical care: Mississippi Med-Com, located at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Marc Rolph, executive director of communications at UMMC, explained to the Jackson Free Press in an interview that the command center is managing criticalcare transfers on a rotational basis, slowly working its way through the state’s facilities equipped with intensive-care units to maximize the limited space available.

For UMMC, that means fewer transfers than in previous spikes—a necessity as the hospital simply has no more room. “We’ve been in the same realm for hospitalizations for the last month,” Rolph said.

Typically, hospitals seeking a transfer to a higher setting of care will contact other institutions directly. That has become nearly impossible in a winter of unmitigated viral spread and skyrocketing hospitalizations, necessitating a central management system.

Just as Dr. Dobbs warned the Jackson Free Press in June, the rationing on transfers applies to all ICU patients statewide, not just those infected with COVID-19.

Read the JFP’s coverage of COVID-19 at jacksonfreepress.com/covid19. Email state reporter Nick Judin at nick@jacksonfreepress. com and follow him on Twitter @nickjudin.