Mississippi's hospital system may be pushed to the point of "failure" in the coming days if the COVID-19 surge there does not slow down, a state doctor and hospital administrator warned. 

"If we continue that trajectory, within the next five to seven to 10 days, I think we're going to see failure of the hospital system in Mississippi," Alan Jones, associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, said Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. 

Jones added, "Hospitals are full from Memphis to Gulfport, Natchez to Meridian."

Meanwhile, the Magnolia State recorded its biggest single-day total of new COVID-19 cases, according to new data posted Thursday. 

The state Health Department reported 4,412 new coronavirus cases and 20 new deaths as of Thursday — a 26% jump from the 3,488 cases it recorded on Tuesday.

Despite the COVID-19 surge, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said in a tweet Thursday, "There will be no lockdowns and there will be no statewide mandates."

Reeves made the comments as he announced that he was extending Mississippi's state of emergency for 30 more days. 

"This extension will ease the process of marshalling additional resources for our response ... allow our system of care to continue to transfer patients to hospitals where treatment is available, ensure expanded access to telemedicine, and will keep options open for use of the great men and women of the MS National Guard," the Republican governor tweeted. 

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the state has seen a total of 376,124 COVID-19 cases and 7,730 virus-related deaths. 

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More than 4,400 Mississippi students were quarantining after being exposed to COVID-19, just as the school year kicks off, according to state data. 

Mississippi's state health department found a total of 4,435 students were quarantined from August 2 to August 6, according to data tracking exposure and positive cases among students and staff.

The health department found that over 380 teachers were also quarantining, with nearly 800 students and 300 teachers confirmed to test positive for COVID-19.

The report was released on Tuesday and first reported on by the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger.

Mississippi is one of the many southern states facing a COVID-19 surge currently, as the highly transmissible Delta variant spreads — largely among unvaccinated people.

Despite the surging cases — which is threatening to cause the state's hospital system to fail— Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Thursday he won't impose new COVID-19 restrictions.

"There will be no lockdowns and there will be no statewide mandates," he said on Twitter.

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A Mississippi eighth grader died on Saturday just hours after receiving a positive test for COVID-19. 

The girl attended junior high school, which began on August 6, just a week before her death, the Mississippi Free Press reported. 

Educators in a Facebook post described the girl as "the perfect student," saying "every teacher loved her and wanted 30 more just like her."

Students at the Smith County School District went maskless for the first three days of school after Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves decided not to impose a mandate. Then, dozens of students and employees reported testing positive for the coronavirus, and the district backtracked. 

"After much consideration for the welfare of our children, Smith County Schools will require all personnel and students to wear a mask," the school district said, according to the Mississippi Free Press.

Despite the rising cases — and despite the spike in the Delta variant across the state— Reeves avoided taking any action. 

On Friday, the day before the eighth grader died, Reeves at a press conference said he would not direct schools to mandate masks.

"I don't have any intention of issuing a statewide mask mandate for any category of Mississippians at this time," he said. "I don't know how I can say that differently other than the way I've said it repeatedly for a number of days and weeks and months."

Last month, Reeves criticized the updated mask guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which now recommends that even fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors to protect against the coronavirus. Reeves was adamantly against this guidance.

The "change in the CDC's mask guidance is foolish and harmful and it reeks of political panic to appear that they are in control," Reeves said. "It has nothing to do with rational science … In Mississippi, we believe in freedom."

His remarks are a complete turnaround from last year, when he quickly issued an executive order calling for students and teachers to wear masks in all public school buildings and facilities.

The order said masks were "important not only to protect oneself, but also to avoid unknowingly harming our fellow Mississippians through asymptomatic community transmission of COVID-19."

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Four US states have set records for new COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations over the past few days, data from Johns Hopkins University shows.

Florida recorded more than 151,000 new cases on Friday, and Hawaii reached 1,167 new infections — both the highest since the start of the pandemic in those states. On Monday, Mississippi recorded a peak of 7,839 cases, and Oregon 4,380, which are the highest in the states since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University. The Mississippi Department of Health reported 7,839 as a 3-day total.

The daily number of hospitalizations is also at an all-time high in these four states, the data showed 

But of the four states, those with higher vaccination rates — Oregon and Hawaii — have more room left in the state's intensive-care units, suggesting vaccines are reducing severe infections.

Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco, told CNBC that Oregon and Hawaii were "hurting with explosive case rates, but with high vaccination and masking rates, may not ever be in the same precarious position" as Florida or Mississippi.

Florida and Mississippi's ICUs are at more than 90% capacity and are mostly full of COVID-19 patients, the Johns Hopkins University data showed. Oregon and Hawaii's ICUs are more than 73% full, with mostly non-COVID-19 patients.

Oregon and Hawaii have mask mandates in place, while Florida and Mississippi don't. 

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Hawaii and Oregon have fully vaccinated 61.3%, and 58% of their population respectively, according to Johns Hopkins University— well above the 50.8% national tally.

Meanwhile, 51.8% of Floridians are fully vaccinated and Mississippi's vaccination rate is much lower, at 36.1%, the same data shows.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said at a news conference on Friday that "when you look across the country, to a certain extent, this current wave is the pandemic of the unvaccinated."

"Those who received the vaccine are significantly less likely to contract the virus," he said.

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Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, who has been vaccinated against COVID-19, has tested positive for the disease, according to a spokesman

"Senator Wicker tested positive this morning for the COVID-19 virus after immediately seeking a test due to mild symptoms. Senator Wicker is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, is in good health, and is being treated by his Tupelo-based physician," said Phillip Waller, the senator's communications director, in a statement. "He is isolating, and everyone with whom Senator Wicker has come in close contact recently has been notified."

Wicker is the second US senator to disclose a "breakthrough" infection, following Lindsey Graham's diagnosis on August 3.

Meanwhile the pandemic continues to worsen in Wicker's home state of Mississippi; according to the New York Times COVID-19 tracking page, Mississippi currently has the highest per-capita case rate of COVID-19, with 118 cases per 100,000 residents. 

Just 36% of Mississippians are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the second-lowest rate for a US state, except for Alabama.

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Vaccinations in the US slowed to their lowest levels in the first week of July. Cases were down and with them, the enthusiasm of the vaccine-hesitant.

But that all changed in early July, as the Delta variant became dominant. Cases rose again, hitting the states with low vaccination rates the hardest.

Vaccine demand rose most prominently in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, an Insider analysis found. Here's why, according to experts and state officials.

A 'traumatizing' increase in cases

Per Insider's analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, demand for first shots between July 6 and August 19 rose by:

• 400% in Louisiana — where 39% were fully vaccinated as of August 19, per Our World in Data.
• 340% in Mississippi — 36% fully vaccinated.
• 330% in Alabama — 36% fully vaccinated.
• 230% in Arkansas — 39% fully vaccinated.
• 220% in Oklahoma — 42% fully vaccinated.

States with the highest vaccination rates saw rises in first-dose uptake, but they were less pronounced: Uptake in Vermont, which had fully vaccinated 66% of its population on July 6, rose by 58% as of August 19; in Massachusetts, which has fully vaccinated 62% of its population, it rose by 65% in the same time frame.

The rise in cases has been "traumatic," Dr. Dale Bratzler, Chief COVID Officer at Oklahoma University, told Insider.

Vaccines help protect against severe infection, hospitalization, and death from the coronavirus, including with the Delta variant.

"The pleas of sick or sadly, dying, loved ones to get vaccinated do indeed have an impact on immediate family and friends," Maureen Miller, an epidemiologist at Columbia University, told Insider. 

More young people dying in this wave is also prompting people to get vaccinated, said Dr. Dawn Marcelle, a regional director for Louisiana's Department of Health, and Dr. Samuel Jones, Director of Health Services at Jackson State University, separately.

Back-to-school season

As schools restart in-person learning, some parents are also rushing to protect their kids.

"People who might not do it for themselves are considering it for the children because children under 12 are not eligible for the vaccine," Marcelle said.

The 2021/2022 academic year has just started, but tens of thousands of children are already quarantining, Forbes reported. The number of children hospitalized with COVID-19 is also at an all-time high.

Col. Rob Ator, Arkansas' vaccine coordinator, told Insider that children aged 12 to 18 made up 23% of doses delivered this past week.

Jones, of Mississippi University, also said his students sought the vaccine as they returned to campus and found activities like athletics requiring vaccination or regular testing to attend. (Hundreds of US colleges have imposed their own vaccine requirements.)

"We had a good bit of resistance in some of our most macho teams," he said. "But they're beginning to break."

And as trust in the vaccine grows, so does peer pressure: "It's becoming a popularity contest," Jones said.

Better outreach

Ator said tailoring vaccine outreach was also helping alleviate people's fears of the shot.

"As a general rule, when you talk about rural America, they don't like people telling them what to do," he said.

"The harder we push, the harder they dig in their heels and come up with their own excuses. So a lot of what we're doing is not pushing, and giving information."

Jones, Ator, and Marcelle also expressed hope that more will be reassured to get the shot when the Food and Drug Administration fully approves COVID-19 vaccines, which only have emergency-use authorization so far.

But while the experts were encouraged by the vaccine uptake, they warned of new cases and hospitalizations in the short term.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines "take five to six weeks to kick in," said Miller, the epidemiologist. "That is far too late for the current wave of infections."

"We will continue to see increased hospitalizations and deaths, which were completely preventable."

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Mississippi on Friday announced an order mandating that all state residents who test positive for the coronavirus quarantine for 10 days.

The order, issued by State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Hobbs, says all Mississippians regardless of vaccination status "must immediately home-isolate on first knowledge of infection with COVID-19."

Hobbs' directive comes as Mississippi continues to experience surges in positive COVID-19 cases.

With just 36.6% of residents fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, Mississippi has the second-lowest vaccination rate in the country. The only one with a lower vaccination rate is Alabama, with 36.1%, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new order says individuals who test positive for COVID-19 must remain at home until they're "fever free for at least 24 hours" and demonstrate "improvement of other symptoms." But a negative COVID-19 test is not required to end isolation after 10 days are up. 

People who isolate at home should avoid contact with other housemates, including family members. There should be no visitors, the order says, and those individuals who have tested positive should wear a face mask if there's no way to avoid being around others. 

Those who are caught flouting the order will be fined $500 and might face imprisonment for six months. 

The situation in Mississippi is dire. The Delta variant has been spreading quickly across Mississippi. And an eighth-grade girl died from COVID-19 after attending school where masks initially weren't required.

"We are clearly at the worst part of the pandemic that we've seen throughout, and it's continued to worsen," Dobbs said at a news briefing earlier this week. "We're seeing higher and higher numbers of not just cases but hospitalizations, people in intensive care units, life support. And sadly, as we've seen, additional deaths are going to follow. Without a doubt we have surpassed our previous peaks by a substantial margin, and we expect to see that continue."

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The CEO of a Southern supermarket chain says he's struggling to keep shelves full during a supply shortage, and that his company has resorted to creating its own version of Lunchables, Kraft Heinz's miniature cracker, cheese, and meat selection.

Donny Rouse, who runs Rouses Markets, told The Wall Street Journal that sometimes the chain receives about 40% of the items it orders from suppliers, compared to more than 90% before the pandemic. 

"It is difficult for customers to get everything they want to get," Rouse told The Journal. 

The chain — which has 65 stores across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama — has found new ways to plug gaps in its inventory. Jason Martinolich, Rouses' vice president of center store, told The Journal that the chain had sourced items from different brands and bought more private-label products. 

Rouse told The Journal that he and his team had visited rival grocery stores to see what they were selling, and asked manufacturers why his competitors were able to get products that his company could not. He did not say whether he'd received answers.

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The 7,000-employee supermarket chain has also struggled to get Lunchables — Kraft Heinz's miniature cracker, cheese, and meat selection — and has instead started to create its own version of the popular snack with crackers, cheese, grapes, and meat, The Journal reported. 

Kraft Heinz told The Journal there was record demand for Lunchables, that it was managing the supply chain, and that it was getting more products to customers.

Grocery stores have faced supply shortages in recent weeks, in part because of the labor shortage and high shipping costs.

Some retailers have stockpiled goods to keep their shelves full. Paul McLean, the chief merchandising officer of Stew Leonard's, a Connecticut supermarket chain, previously told Insider that the company had purchased 50% more items than usual, including pasta and olive oil. 

Some evidence suggests that shoppers are also stockpiling goods as the Delta variant of the coronavirus spreads throughout the country, as they did in the early days of the pandemic. 

Rouses and Kraft Heinz did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. 

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As positive coronavirus cases swiftly rise in Mississippi, one hospital finds itself unable to accommodate people who need major surgeries to survive.

Memorial Hospital at Gulfport doesn't have enough ICU beds to house patients waiting for brain and heart surgeries, two staffers told Insider. The situation is so dire, the hospital has no choice but to cancel them. In the best case scenario, patients who need these surgeries might wait days to receive one, said Whitney Sutton, registered nurse and ICU manager at Memorial. Some will wait even longer, for periods of up to two weeks. 

"They're lifesaving for the person who needs it," Sutton said. "We try each and every day to make it work. But as soon as we make a bed, it's given to the next person who's not doing well." 

The hospital is overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, most of whom are unvaccinated. At times, nurses hear these patients express regret about not getting vaccinated, respiratory therapy manager Brandi Ladner told Insider. 

Mississippi has the second-lowest vaccination rate in the country, at 36.8%, beat out only by Alabama. The rate is even lower in Harrison County, where Memorial is based. About 32% of the population is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus in Harrison, according to the most recent data from the Mississippi State Department of Health. 

Officials are trying desperately to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The topmost health official in the state last week announced that all people who test positive for the virus must quarantine at home for 10 days.  

The Delta variant has been spreading quickly across the state. At Memorial, nurses and doctors say it is linked to most of the positive cases they've seen so far.

Ladner says the hospital is seeing many younger patients. On average, a COVID-19 patient in recent weeks at Memorial has been between 40 and 50 years old. But there are patients even younger who are dying from the virus.

"These are 30-year-olds with 6-year-olds, 12-year-olds, with their children in school," Ladner said. "And we have to contact the spouse and tell them that we weren't able to save them." So far, the youngest COVID-19 patient at Memorial was a healthy 24-year-old on life support who has since been discharged.

Morale among hospital staffers responding to COVID-19 at Memorial is even worse at this time than it was at the height of the pandemic last year, when vaccines had not yet been developed or authorized, Ladner and Sutton said. 

Last year, the fear was that nobody knew how to treat patients with the coronavirus. This time around, medical practitioners at Memorial are armed with a year's worth of knowledge and authorized vaccines, but the situation is not any easier. 

"It seems like a lost cause because no matter what we do, it's not enough," Sutton said.

When people die of COVID-19, "you have to dust yourself off and go to the next room because it doesn't stop," Sutton added. "You don't really get a moment to grieve those losses or process them."

The hospital is pleading with people to get vaccinated. "If you want to be there for your child's 16th birthday, get vaccinated," Ladner said. 

But the combination of rising cases and a low vaccination rate is creating difficult options, like staffers having to choose between helping a COVID-19 patient or providing a life-altering surgery. 

"It's unfortunate that there's somebody else worse that needs the bed and they are left in the hallway," Ladner said.

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