As of Sunday, 62 Pearl River County residents have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began. Free COVID-19 testing will be available in the county Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

Mississippi reported 516 new COVID-19 cases as of Nov. 8, for a total of 127,205 across the state, resulting in 3,443 deaths. In Pearl River County there have been 1,268 cases, resulting in 62 deaths. Of those, 95 cases and 23 deaths have been in long term care facilities.

There have been 1,152,661 COVID-19 tests administered across the state. Of the over 120,000 cases in the state, 111,430 people are presumed recovered.

There is free drive-thru COVID-19 testing available at the Pearl River County Health Department on Tuesday, Nov. 10, Thursday, Nov. 12 and Friday, Nov. 13. To take advantage of the free testing, make an appointment by completing an online patient screening form at covidschedule.umc.edu or by calling 601-496-7200. If a clinician determines that the likelihood of infection is high during the screening, the person will receive an appointment. All teachers and school staff will receive appointments when they apply or call.

For the week of Oct. 25-Oct. 31, Pearl River County had 32 COVID cases occur via community transmission. Four of those resulted from outbreaks. The county’s test positivity rate remained in the green zone at 2.9 percent. In the month of October, more COVID-19 cases in Pearl River County were reported in white people than other races or ethnic groups.

Statewide, 37,896 Black Mississippians have had COVID-19, resulting in 1,373 deaths. Across the state, 40,387 white Mississippians have tested positive, resulting in 1,389 deaths. As of Nov. 8, white people accounted for 48 percent of COVID deaths in the state, 47.5 percent of deaths were among Black people, 2.2 percent of deaths were among Native Americans, 1.5 percent of the deaths were Hispanic people and 0.1 percent were among Asian people.

Statewide the COVID-19 cases broken down by age group are 2,600 cases in the 0-4 group with one death; 11,794 cases in the 5-17 age group with one death; 17,443 cases and 12 deaths in the 18-24 group; 28,492 in the 25-39 group with 69 deaths; 18,589 cases in the 40-49 group with 144 deaths; 25,689 cases in the 50-64 group with 633 deaths; 20,883 cases in the 65 plus group with 2,580 deaths.