Lafayette County holding drive-thru COVID-19 testing as cases surpass 300

Published 12:46 pm Friday, June 26, 2020

With another surge in COVID-19 cases in the past couple weeks, Lafayette County is hosting another drive-thru testing site next week.

Residents of Lafayette County and surrounding communities can be tested on Tuesday, June 30, at the Lafayette County Multipurpose Arena located at 70 F.D. “Buddy” East Parkway in Oxford. The one-day event is being conducted by the University of Mississippi Medical Center and the Mississippi State Department of Health.

Those who want to set up an appointment must be experiencing COVID-19 symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath or sore throat. Those who have been exposed to someone who has tested positive also qualify for testing. To get a free screening from a UMMC clinician, people must either fill out an online questionnaire at umc.edu/covidscreening or call 601-496-7200.

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Lafayette County announced the testing site on Thursday after seeing multiple days of reporting more than 10 new cases. On Wednesday, Lafayette County reported its highest number of single-day positive cases with 20, followed by 14 new cases reported on Thursday and seven new cases reported on Friday.

The total number of cases in Lafayette County is currently 310 along with four deaths and 42 long-term care outbreak cases since March 19. One death has occurred in a LTC facility.

Earlier this week, Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill announced 14 area urgent care clinics that are testing for COVID-19 will begin reporting positive cases directly to City Hall. The reporting will be done electronically, but when that will begin has yet to be announced.

The cases being reported by MSDH do not include any positive cases from individuals who are not permanent residents of Lafayette County but are currently staying in Oxford, such as University of Mississippi students.

Mississippi saw its highest number of cases reported in a single day this week. On Thursday, MSDH reported 1,092 new cases statewide, breaking the previous record of 611 set earlier this week, and reported 550 new cases on Friday.

There are a total of 769 Mississippians currently hospitalized, as of June 25, with 533 of them being patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 236 of them being patients who are suspected of having COVID-19. Of that total number of hospitalizations, 153 were in Intensive Care Units and 90 were on ventilators, as of June 25.