After yet another spike in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, Lafayette County is seeing a decline in, or at least a leveling off of, new cases.

The Mississippi State Department of Health reported 12 new cases in Lafayette County as of 6 p.m. on Monday, bringing the total number of cases to 2,362 since March 19. According to data on the City of Oxford’s website, Lafayette County has 104 active cases as of Oct. 12.

Since Oct. 19, Lafayette County reported 53 new cases. The highest single-day total coming on Oct. 10 when Lafayette County reported 17 new cases as of 6 p.m. on Friday. The other single day totals were 15 on Oct. 9, four on Oct. 11 and five on Oct. 12.

Lafayette County reported one new COVID-19-related death on Oct. 11, bringing that total to 43.

In the local school districts, new cases are remaining low. During the week of Oct. 4 through 11, the Oxford School District reported seven new cases with six of them being students and one from a faculty or staff member. There were two Oxford Middle School students who tested positive last week along with one student each at Bramlett Elementary School, Della Davidson Elementary School, Oxford Intermediate School and Oxford High School. The one positive among OSD faculty and staff came from Della Davidson.

Due to the new positive tests and contact tracing, there were 89 students and 13 faculty members quarantined last week. The highest concentration of quarantine numbers among students came from Della Davidson, with 46 students and five faculty or staff members. The second highest number of students quarantined was 19 at Bramlett Elementary along with three faculty or staff members. Nine OMS students were quarantined along with eight OHS students, five Central Elementary School students and two OIS students.

One faculty or staff member at OIS and OHS were quarantined along with three other staff members in other OSD departments.

Lafayette County School District had not released a COVID-19 report for last week, as of the publishing of this article.

The University of Mississippi has seen their COVID-19 case numbers level off after a sharp increase when the fall semester began in late August. As of Tuesday morning, there were 23 active cases across the campus community with 14 of them among the student population and nine cases among the staff.

There were two people in isolation and two others in quarantine, according to the school’s COVID-19 dashboard. One on-campus housing building has a reported outbreak and there have been 24 new cases reported over the last seven days.

According to the University’s Sentinel Testing Program date, there have been 1,032 tests performed with a .39 percent positivity rate. Of those that have been tested, 501 have been students, 317 have been staff and 213 were faculty.