Governor Tate Reeves issued the following statement.
Friends – (hint: this is one of the long ones) – I want you to know what our team is doing on behalf of our fellow Mississippians.
#1 – we are not panicking. As we do with every emergency (tornado, hurricane, flooding, ice storm, and this pandemic), we are calmly making decisions based on the best available data to manage the situation and mitigate its impact on our people.
My number one goal from day one of this pandemic has always been to protect the integrity of our health care system. The current phase of the pandemic seems more and more like a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” – as the Delta variant has had very few breakthrough cases amongst those who have “gotten the shot” – but the goal remains the same: ensure everyone that can get better with quality care receives that quality care!
Total hospitalizations remain below where they were at our peak from August of 2020. Total number of patients in ICU beds remains at or near our peak levels from August of 2020.
Honestly, the real challenge is NOT the physical beds – hospital beds or ICU beds. The challenge is our hospitals may not have an adequate number of health care professionals (docs, nurses, respiratory therapists, etc.) to staff those beds. Unfortunately, I’ve been advised hospitals throughout Mississippi have lost nearly 2,000 nurses over the last year. There is a labor shortage in most industries throughout America today and health care is no different. Some hospitals lost staff because they laid off employees that never came back. Some staff left due to administrative decisions (such as mandating vaccines). But the reason for the shortage can be debated in the future…..the task at hand is to help backfill these vacancies to protect the integrity of our healthcare system.
To that end, here is what we are doing and what we are focused on in the near term:
1. MSDH delayed through regulation any elective surgeries from August 1-August 15.
2. MSDH implemented the System of Care plan the team developed to transport patients to ensure all beds in the state were in use handling the patients they could handle.
3. Yesterday, we added ICU capacity and beds in our System of Care at both the VA facility in Jackson and the VA facility on the Coast.
4. We are re-opening the 50-bed MED-1 facility in the parking garage at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. This facility should be operational and functional no later than Friday of this week.
5. It has been determined by the MSDH that 920 additional health care professionals are needed in the intermediate term in Mississippi.
6. MEMA has made an EMAC request to other states - as is required by FEMA - for the additional personnel. If this request cannot be filled by other states, the request will be forwarded to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for federal assistance.
7. MEMA has also begun the process of contracting with private entities for additional personnel to be added to existing personnel at hospitals throughout Mississippi as well as at any new facilities that we may have to open.
8. MSDH and MEMA have requested an additional 10 teams to open new sites - in addition to the 41 sites that we already have in the state - to administer monoclonal anti-bodies treatment - a treatment that has proven to significantly reduce hospitalizations for patients with COVID.
9. Over 60,000 vaccinations were administered last week alone, and access to the vaccine remains available to every eligible person in the state.
10. The team is considering opening an additional 50 bed facility - possibly Med-2 and possibly a private entity - in the Jackson market. In addition, we are also in contract discussions with a potential 50 bed facility in the Hattiesburg market.
11. We are discussing our options on the State of Emergency and will make a final decision within the next 48 hours on whether or not it needs to be extended.
As you can see, in spite of the angry rhetoric coming from so many, our emergency management team is doing what it does - we are calmly dealing with an ever-changing environment to meet the needs of Mississippi. I remain incredibly proud of all the work being done by the Mississippi National Guard, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, the Mississippi Dept. of Health, and our many partners.
Please….Pray for your fellow Mississippians.
Be smart. Remain calm. Ignore all the irrational folks.
Do what’s best for you and your family.
23 comments:
You dropped the ball Tater, John Bell did all that stuff two weeks ago. Your too chicken to ask people to wear a mask. The unnecessary lost of life is on your hands.
@2:36
Go hide in your clean room like a modern Howard Hughes, watching CNN all day in fear.
I am unmasked
I am unvaxxed
I am uncompromised
And I am still not dead!
Live free or Die
According to MSDH charts the peak hospitalizations was in Jan 2021 when they were also above 1400. August 2020 hospitalizations were still below 1000. Something so simple to check and it's at the beginning of the press release, makes it hard to believe anything else in here. Am I wrong?
Political mealy-mouth propaganda to save his image.
Where does he think these extra personnel will come from? All surrounding states are already overloaded.
But he won't declare a mask mandate, because he knows more "science" than the CDC. Just like Jethro Bodine knew "goes-into". God, I wish we had someone as smart as Jethro for governor.
@2:36 Can't mandate a mask, but have absolutely no problem mandating no elective surgeries. #hypocrisy
Pandemic of the unvaccinated
It’s not fun to watch….but I watch.
Unvaccinated brag about it and then you have to send prayers and flowers and all the angst and hand wringing
And then if they get out…..back to ignorance
Vaccines stop you from going to hospital - dying.
Goal is not NOT to get virus….goal is to easily survive virus / avoid hospital: and avoid long haul covid symptoms - vaccines do that
1. Put hand in front of mask so that mask is completely covered by your hand.
2. Sneeze
3. Assess effectiveness of said device by observing moisture on hand
4. N 9 5 masks require fit testing fo r tb , corona is smaller….
The nursing shortage is because they are mandating staff take the kill-shot
Tate does everything but govern.
Bless his heart, y'all. He is a special kind of stupid.
3:43. I wonder what the actual number of nurses who quit due to mandatory vaccines in this state are? UMMC isn’t requiring one. unvaxed-N95 mask required.
and stay unvaxed. but when you can’t breathe stay at home and don’t flood the hospital. a cancer patient who trusts science needs treatment. you are making your own bed in which to lay
If the issue is a nursing shortage but there are beds as the governor states, why is UMMC opening a 50 bed unit in the parking garage? This should get fun in a few weeks when the expose children experiment starts showing results. Anti-Vaxers and those who scream about wearing a piece of cloth should be immediately relegated to that garage if they require hospitalization.
This is so sad. The level of ignorance on this page is truly sad. For so many people to be proud that they "Live Free or Die; I'm not getting the shot!" is astounding. What won't be astounding is when they truly die living free...
@5:06
You don’t even know what it means to be American.
You have been cowed and brainwashed.
The settlers who faced down and fought murderous and bloodthirsty savages were real Americans. Many of them died fighting for every inch of soul and we eventually conquered this continent. I bet a woman from the plains in 1821 could easily beat a wimp like you to death with her bare hands.
It is pussified cucks like you who are giving it all back to all new savages. Just because you have a beard and a smart mouth doesn’t make you a man.
You are a disgrace. Pathetic.
#TateReeves2023
"There is a labor shortage in most industries throughout America today and health care is no different. Some hospitals lost staff because they laid off employees that never came back. Some staff left due to administrative decisions (such as mandating vaccines)."
Yeah that's it. I'm sure it had nothing to do with them being completely burned out from watching people needlessly die because they won't get a vaccine due to something they saw on Facebook on Fox News. Sure. Whatever you people need to believe.
} Our biggest pain point is the nursing staff available,” Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, said during a news conference Wednesday. UMMC has regular and ICU beds that it can’t open because there aren’t enough nurses to staff them.”
...
”Even in non-pandemic days, UMMC’s approximately 90 adult ICU beds stay full, as do regular medical-surgical beds in the Medical Center’s adult hospitals. The same is true for inpatient beds at Children’s of Mississippi, the state’s sole pediatric hospital.”
Umc.edu Today
Doesn't have anything to do with being able to make more money in neighboring states. Nah. . same as the teacher shortage. Nothing to see here.
When travel nurses can go to another state and earn over $4,000/week (and more) plus a sign on bonus, get hotel rooms and per diem, they have no reason to stay in Mississippi.
My son earned $30,000 in one month while working the ICU in another state. Of course, he zipped up many body bags, too.
I'm going to change boots. These hip-waders will not be tall enough for the bullshit being spread on this board.
" I bet a woman from the plains in 1821 could easily beat a wimp like you to death with her bare hands."
I bet a woman from the plains in 1821 would not be afraid to take a smallpox vaccination and would celebrate the fact that 9 out of 10 children now don't die before age 7 from childhood diseases, due to vaccination and hygiene.
But, don your tricolor hat, Oh Lard of Obesity and FreeDumb Fighter Extraordinaire.
Methinks (in keeping with your 1990s BBoard style fact free rants) you are the Wuss, scared of a piece of cloth and a shot.
And I bet you went to an all white school, never served in combat arms, much less in combat, and guarantee you would fold from a single punch of a 100 pound female. Perhaps Ronda Rousey is available for your beatdown, oh manly man?
Live Dumb and Die (early).
The ignorance of anything outside of MS continues to amaze and sadden me every time these stories come up and i read these comments. Multiple states and countries that have much higher vaccination rates and mask use are also having increases in cases. Gibraltar is almost 100% vaccinated and the CDC has a level 4 travel advisory on them. The mob hatred for everyone that doesn't go along is scary too. So unvaccinated should be refused medical treatment cause they "did it to themselves"? What about drug users? Or drinkers? Buffet eaters? People that don't exercise? Almost every totalitarian government in modern history has built their empire on the foundations of "Fairness" and "Safety".
"#1 – we are not panicking."
Translation: "We are losing our damned minds in a state of mindless panic!"
If the first words out of someone's mouth are, "You can trust me...I'm a Christian...," you cannot trust them and they wouldn't know "Christian" from Rastafarian...or broccoli (and you never hear anyone say, "Trust me, I'm a (insert any other religion here)"). If the first words in a press release are "We are not panicking," everyone involved is panicking. And scared.
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