Mississippi reported a near-record number of new COVID-19 coronavirus cases on Tuesday along with dozens of recent deaths resulting from the virus and state health officials urged Mississippians to “stay home” if at all possible.

The state reported 957 new coronavirus cases reported in the last 24 hours and a total of 44 deaths. The state reported that 10 of the deaths reported actually occurred between June 17 and June 18, but the reporting was delayed.

“The coronavirus is the worse that it’s been this whole time. We’re seeing massive numbers of new cases,” Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said Tuesday.

“I just challenge you to call any of your primary care docs or urgent care clinics and say ‘Hey what are you seeing?’  They are just overburdened with people showing up getting coronavirus tests.”

Dobbs said he applauded cities across the state that are imposing mask requirements

“(We) would encourage every community, every city, every county to look at enacting a mask ordinance such that we can protect our citizens as much as possible,” he said.

The state reported 624 confirmed COVID patients were hospitalized yesterday with 167 in ICU beds and 93 requiring ventilation.

“We’re seeing increased numbers of hospitalizations and increased stress on the health system,” Dobbs said.

Because of the pressure on hospitals in certain counties, the state will begin restricting elected medical procedures in six counties to free up hospital resources.

Those counties include: Hinds, Rankin, Madison, Forrest, Jones and Washington counties.

“We’ll probably have to add additional counties as this continues to expand,” Dobbs said.

Dobbs said some hospitals in the Jackson area and others are beginning to fill up and have had to ship patients out of state.

Mississippi State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said the virus numbers may foretell worse days ahead.

“We are now skyrocketing,” he said. “We may be in for a rough summer and a rougher fall.”

Here’s a county by county breakdown of coronavirus cases and deaths:

County	Total Cases	Total Deaths	Total LTC Facility Cases	Total LTC Facility Deaths
Adams	315	18	44	10
Alcorn	74	2	1	1
Amite	104	3	13	2
Attala	365	23	89	19
Benton	42	0	1	0
Bolivar	356	18	30	6
Calhoun	141	4	23	4
Carroll	168	11	45	9
Chickasaw	287	19	36	11
Choctaw	75	4	0	0
Claiborne	284	10	43	8
Clarke	210	25	19	9
Clay	249	11	1	1
Coahoma	205	6	0	0
Copiah	620	15	29	3
Covington	375	5	2	0
Desoto	1724	18	19	5
Forrest	916	43	95	29
Franklin	45	2	3	1
George	91	3	1	0
Greene	105	9	34	6
Grenada	506	7	34	4
Hancock	134	13	9	4
Harrison	969	11	82	5
Hinds	2591	41	134	15
Holmes	560	41	98	20
Humphreys	156	9	18	6
Issaquena	10	1	0	0
Itawamba	137	8	34	7
Jackson	689	17	46	5
Jasper	267	6	0	0
Jefferson	110	3	0	0
Jefferson Davis	113	4	3	1
Jones	1140	49	154	32
Kemper	179	14	38	9
Lafayette	409	4	42	1
Lamar	491	7	3	2
Lauderdale	922	80	201	51
Lawrence	187	2	0	0
Leake	589	19	3	0
Lee	562	20	63	14
Leflore	500	53	168	37
Lincoln	484	34	111	26
Lowndes	509	13	21	6
Madison	1326	35	135	18
Marion	300	12	15	2
Marshall	258	3	5	0
Monroe	425	34	99	28
Montgomery	139	2	0	0
Neshoba	1004	73	96	27
Newton	347	9	6	0
Noxubee	272	8	15	3
Oktibbeha	552	27	128	18
Panola	364	6	2	1
Pearl River	265	32	48	12
Perry	72	4	0	0
Pike	454	16	40	8
Pontotoc	304	6	3	1
Prentiss	110	3	24	3
Quitman	81	1	0	0
Rankin	982	13	33	0
Scott	779	15	14	2
Sharkey	37	0	1	0
Simpson	345	3	2	0
Smith	229	11	52	8
Stone	69	2	0	0
Sunflower	420	8	1	0
Tallahatchie	145	4	3	1
Tate	310	11	28	8
Tippah	138	11	0	0
Tishomingo	89	1	2	0
Tunica	113	3	12	2
Union	218	10	20	8
Walthall	205	6	1	1
Warren	532	18	39	9
Washington	617	10	8	1
Wayne	545	15	27	2
Webster	127	11	52	10
Wilkinson	93	9	5	2
Winston	280	8	32	5
Yalobusha	180	7	35	7
Yazoo	523	6	19	2
Total	32,214	1,158	2,792	558