DeKalb passes mandatory mask order
By Steve Swogetinsky
The Kemper Messenger
The DeKalb board of aldermen approved an order last week that will require anyone entering a business in town to cover their nose and mouth with a mask.
Employees will also have to wear masks. This was done in an effort to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus.
"We are continuing to see the numbers of people infected go up," said DeKalb mayor Clark Adams. "This is a very serious health hazard and we are doing this in hopes of slowing the spread."
Similar orders have been put in place in Philadelphia and other communities.
According to the Mississippi State Department of Health, as of Monday, Kemper County has 93 cases of the COVID-19 and six deaths. That's up by 14 cases when compared to last Monday's numbers.
As of Monday, the state of Mississippi has 9,674 reported cases of COVID-19 and 435 related deaths. Here are the numbers for neighboring counties as of Monday: Lauderdale County, 492 cases and 44 deaths; Neshoba County, 320 cases and 15 deaths; Newton County, 142 cases and one death; and, Clarke County, 84 cases and eight deahts.
State officials are concerned that the virus rate has been climbing in a block of East Mississippi counties which includes Kemper County.
Dr. Thomas Dobbs III of the Mississippi Department of Health told leaders in Philadelphia last week that new cases and death numbers are headed in the wrong direction in East Mississippi. This is most concerning, he added, as the state begins to come out from under its Stay In Place orders that were aimed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
"We have witnessed in Scott, Leake, Atala, Neshoba, Newton, Lauderdale and Kemper counties a huge proportion of the new cases over the past week or two," Dobbs. "There is really a hot spot of disease transition happening here. We have been trying to dig in and find out what is going on."
Neshoba County's population is not among the largest in the state, but it is in the top seven in the number of cases," Dobbs said. In fact, all of the East Mississippi counties he mentioned were in the top 12 statewide as of last week.
"This deserves a lot of attention," Dobbs said.
The search for causes and common factors is leading investigators to the poultry industry, Dobbs said.
"We have seen a lot of cases in communities that are associated with poultry production," Dobbs said. "It is not necessarily poultry production in the counties but people who work in the poultry industry and live in the surrounding communities."
Across East Mississippi, people live in one county and travel back and forth to other counties to work, shop, and attend different events. Some carpool back and forth to work which can obviously cause more virus spread.
Another concern is the number of households with multi-generational family members. Some family members go out to work or for other reasons They become positive for the virus and then they bring it home, Dobbs said.
"You guys have a bit of a whirlwind of things going to in your community," Dobbs said. "I am worried it is going to get worse in the future.
"When we look at the different people who are infected, it is not the people who work in poultry but people who live in those communities. We will investigate more. We are working with the industry to make sure we have minimized any transmission risk," Dobbs said.
"We are seeing it so in the communities. Primarily African Americans, followed by Hispanic folks, and then by Caucasian. I have met with the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians chief Cyrus Ben and they are seeing a lot, too," Dobbs said.
Dobbs said the state is considering heightened health protection orders for the East Mississippi counties which would include wearing face masks mandatory.