There have been over 50 COVID-19 deaths in Pearl River County since the start of the pandemic and as of last week three long-term care facilities in the county were reported to have active outbreaks.

Since the pandemic started in the spring of this year, there have been 883 COVID-19 cases in Pearl River County and 53 deaths, 20 of which occurred in long term care facilities, according to data from the Mississippi State Department of Health. Three long term care facilities in the county had active outbreaks as of Sept. 17: Bedford Care Center of Picayune with two staff cases; Pearl River County Nursing Home with three staff cases; and Picayune Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center with three staff cases, eight resident cases and one resident death.

As of Sept. 24, Mississippi has had 96,032 COVID-19 cases, resulting in 2,894 deaths. Of the over 96,000 cases in the state, 85,327 people are presumed recovered from COVID-19.

In the week of Sept. 14-18, schools in Pearl River County had no new outbreaks. Countywide, there were five new COVID-19 cases in teachers or school staff and four new cases in students. Stats for schools includes cases in all three school districts.

Across the county, eight teachers or staff members were quarantined and 165 students were quarantined due to COVID-19 exposure in the week of Sept. 14-18.

Since the start of the semester, there has been one outbreak in a school in the county, 19 teachers or staff members have tested positive and 36 students have tested positive.

In Pearl River County, there have been 458 cases in white residents, 123 in Black residents, 64 classified as other and 220 where the race is classified as unknown.

Statewide, 30,253 Black Mississippians have tested positive for COVID-19, resulting in 1,200 deaths. Across the state, 26,538 white Mississippians have had COVID-19, resulting in 1,160 deaths.

Statewide the COVID-19 cases broken down by age group are 10,393 cases in the under 18 age group with one death; 21,564 cases in the 18-29 age group with 21 deaths; 14,166 cases in the 30-39 age group with 49 deaths; 14,266 cases in the 40-49 age group with 122 deaths; 13,590 cases in the 50-59 age group with 269 deaths; 10,687 in the 60-69 age group with 603 deaths; 6,442 cases in the 70-79 age group with 768 deaths; 3,433 cases in the 80 to 89 age group with 690 deaths; and 1,248 cases in the 90 plus age group with 370 deaths.

The test positivity rate for Pearl River County is 5.7 percent.