Mississippi Co. in red zone

In his Wednesday report via Zoom, Blytheville Mayor James Sanders said the White House COVID-19 Task Force has identified Mississippi County, along with 10 other Arkansas counties, as red zones.

Since last Wednesday (Oct.14), 89 new active cases have been reported in Blytheville. In the county, active cases have risen from 135 to 224 during the same time period.

He also reported that Northeast Arkansas has now moved ahead of Northwest Arkansas in terms of COVID-19 growth rate.

Blytheville, along with Jonesboro, Paragould and Mountain Home, were also designated as a metro red area. Metro red areas are identified as having a rate of infection that is twice the national average per capita. As of Thursday afternoon, there were 97 active cases in the 72315 zip code.

As of press time Friday, Mississippi County had 2,144 total cumulative cases; 238 active cases; 1,840 recoveries; and 66 deaths.

“I know everyone is tired of hearing about COVID,” Dr. Andrews Pirtle said. “I wish this was over but it’s not. This is a long, long marathon. We can’t drop the ball now. Our town is too small. We have no ICU because we have no nurses to mind them.”

She went on to further explain the importance of continuing to wear a mask.

“This mask is better than a vaccine for now. I’ve been in the room with at least five COVID cases. Why do I not have it?,” she said. “Because I wear my mask and I make sure it fits.”

Blytheville Police Chief Ross Thompson also addressed the significance of wearing a mask while in the public at all times.

“It may seem un-American to try and force people to wear a mask around. But we hope it’s temporary. The more you wear it now, the less you may have to wear it later,” Thompson said.

Officials in the Zoom conference also pointed out that people visiting places like Wal-Mart haven’t been wearing a mask as much and it also hasn’t been enforced.

“I’m going to work with Wal-Mart management,” Thompson said. “I know, I’ve seen it as well, it looks like they’re dropping off with people wearing them out there. We have actually discussed having police officers set up and if people are not going to comply with [wearing a mask] we’re going to turn them away. We’ve got to pull together to get this thing eradicated.”

In response to local parties, Thompson said, “There’s time to celebrate after this when numbers go down. When we can have full capacity football and basketball games because we beat this. If we need to we will arrest those who are responsible for having these parties.”