Mississippi’s new COVID-19 coronavirus cases continued to climb Saturday as the state’s top health officer warned 1,000 more Mississippians may die this month.

The Mississippi State Department of Health reported 1,942 new cases on Saturday, bringing the total cases since the pandemic began in March to 163,458.

The latest numbers pushed Mississippi’s 7-day and 14-day, daily averages of new cases into record territory as well, with more than 15,000 new cases detected in the last week. By comparison, that’s nearly as many cases in the last 7 days than were detected in the entire month of September.

The high numbers of cases have also led to record numbers of COVID-19 hospitalizations with the state reporting 1,068 patients with confirmed COVID-19 in state hospitals on Thursday. The high numbers of new cases leads to hospitalization and ultimately deaths, health officials have said.

“What would I do to save 1,000 lives?” Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs asked Saturday morning on social media. “We may see an additional 1,000 deaths before the start of 2021. All preventable.

“I would do a lot. We collectively can save thousands of Mississippians throughout this rest of the pandemic. Yesterday 37 people died, many in their 30’s-50’s”

Of the total cases, the state believes approximately 128,746 have recovered and while many people who are infected with the virus may only have moderate or even no visible symptoms, others can get gravely ill and die as a result.

The state reported 33 new deaths Saturday. A total of 3,949 Mississippians have died from the virus, the state reported.

The 7-day, daily average of new cases rose to 2,153 with Saturday’s update, setting a new 7-day record high. Just 30 days ago, on Nov. 4, the 7-day average was 665 cases per day, meaning the statistic is up more than 200 percent during that time.

The 14-day, daily average of new cases rose to 1,645 on Saturday, also a new all-time record high.