Omicron, now the primary variant across the state, is proving to be less severe but more contagious.
Dr. Thomas Dobbs, State Health Officer with the Mississippi Department of Health, joined Y’all Politics for an updated discussion on where the state is now as COVID cases and hospitalizations rise. This is a follow up to an interview between Dobbs and Y’all Politics Publisher Alan Lange from late August 2021.
Dobbs says there is currently a predominance of the Omicron variant in the state, but that we are still dealing with more severe illness related to Delta. The new variant is more contagious than the Delta variant, but the severity of illness is not the same as what the state health care system saw last summer. More people are being infected with usually less impact.
Not all monoclonal antibody treatments are effective in helping those with COVID but those treatments that are effective are in short supply in Mississippi. Since the distributions of these treatments have in essence been federalized, they are allocated to states. Dobbs estimated that there is 10x the demand for these treatments than there is currently supply.
Watch the full interview with Dr. Thomas Dobbs below.
Frank Corder
