A brother and sister from Natchez died of COVID-19 deaths, Adams County Coroner James Lee said Monday.

On Friday, a 73-year-old woman died with the disease and her 69-year-old brother died the following Sunday, Lee said.

“I’ve seen an increase in COVID deaths in Adams County in the past month and its very scary to me,” he said. “My granddaughter remains hospitalized in North Jackson due to the coronavirus at age 25. I won’t lie. I’m very afraid of this virus and what I see. I just wish we take this thing seriously.”

The Mississippi State Department of Health reported total of 38 confirmed COVID-19 deaths for Adams County on Thursday and 39 deaths on Monday.

Adams County Emergency Management Director Robert Bradford said in a Monday meeting of the Adams County Board of Supervisors that a total of 38 active COVID-19 cases are being tracked in the county.

Adams County has a mandate that is still in effect until Oct. 31, Bradford said.

“We’re doing well and our numbers continue to go down,” he said. “We’re still under our mask mandate until Oct. 31. We have another EOC meeting on Wednesday and we’ll look at whether we need to extend that based on our current numbers and projections and bring that back to the board.”

Two Adams County supervisors said they would like to end the mask mandate before its expiration on Oct. 31 after Gov. Tate Reeves relaxed some COVID-19 restrictions last week.

Supervisor Wes Middleton said he believed residents in Adams County were smart enough to protect themselves without mask wearing being mandatory to which Supervisor Kevin Wilson agreed.

“We should strongly urge mask wearing but I personally would like to see the ‘mandate’ word dropped. I believe our residents are smart enough and educated enough to do what they need to do to protect themselves and everyone around them,” Middleton said.

Reeves let a statewide order expire on Wednesday last week except in schools and in certain professions that could be super spreaders.

“The governor said we should continue to do what is best in our communities and I believe what is best is to continue wearing masks and washing our hands,” Supervisor Ricky Gray said. “As community leaders, it is our job to try and keep everyone safe in our community. … People are listening to the governor and only hearing what they want to hear.”

Later in the meeting, Wilson said he too was tired of the mask mandate and asked the public to hold out until Oct. 31.

“I want to ask the public to please bear with us on the mask mandate. I know a lot of people are tired of wearing the masks. I know I am but public safety is our number one concern,” he said.

The board took no action concerning the mask mandate in Monday’s meeting.