Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves COVID-19 Briefing Transcript April 7

Governor Reeves: (00:00)
Whatever is needed in the area to help us get through. This doesn’t automatically make you a vendor. It’s just stepping forward so that we might be able to identify a helper when the need comes. And the need is coming. It is imminent. The website is msbeoc.org. Let me say that again. M as in Mississippi. S as in state. B as in business. E as in emergency. O as in operations. C as in center. Msbeoc.org. At this time I want to turn it over to Director Michelle to offer a few more details about this particular website. And the things that he is doing to help us.

Director Michelle: (00:56)
Thank you Governor. As the Governor indicated in the website at msbeoc.org. It’s a virtual business emergency operations center. In the case of the COVID-19 responses much of the resources that we’ve had to acquire had been through the private sector outside of the national stockpile with federal resourcing. What this is going to give businesses and opportunity to do is to go on. You’ll click on the link where it says register. You’ll go in and enter the company’s information. It also gives you the opportunity to talk specifically about what your business. The services that you offer. The products that you offer. Once that is done, the information is entered. An email will be sent to my communications director. You’ll be entered basically into a onto a database.

Director Michelle: (01:37)
And in the event we have a disaster such as this. Would go in. Can pull you up by the product offerings. Or send you an email and ask you if you have a specific product offerings here. As the Governor has mentioned there’s no cost to join this. And it does not qualify you as a vendor per state. But we do have a website link there that if you want to be a certified vendor for the state of Mississippi. You can do that as well.

Thank you Director Michelle. And just as a reminder to all of the people across Mississippi today we are here to talk about COVID-19. But April is often the most challenging weather month of the year throughout our state. In addition to that, we are going to be dealing with floods in the Mississippi Delta and other places. As we did last year. And in addition to that, before we know it, it will be hurricane season. And the early indications are that the Gulf of Mexico is warmer than we would like for it to be. And therefore it could be a very challenging hurricane season in 2020. And so, we’ve got a lot to prepare for in addition to COVID-19. At this time, I’ve asked Dr. Byers to give us an update from the health department’s perspective on where they see us with COVID-19.

Dr. Byers: (03:02)
As the Governor mentioned, we had an additional 177 cases reported yesterday. With an additional eight deaths. You know, that’s putting us close to 2,000 cases in Mississippi now. And 59 deaths. And every death that we have is tragic. This is a point in time where we all need to remember those things that we can do to protect those individuals who are most vulnerable. If you look at our deaths, most of those deaths are occurring in individuals who are 60 and over. We already know that this is a vulnerable population. We’ve seen impact in this age group before with other infectious diseases including things like West Nile and influenza. So the more that we are able to protect ourselves from infection. The more we’re able to protect those individuals within the population who are vulnerable.

Dr. Byers: (04:03)
We’ve also seen some data that indicates, and as we look at our data and it’s important to remember. The more cases that we get, the more data we have to be able to determine who is most impacted by this ongoing outbreak. We have seen some racial disparities and the number of cases. And some racial disparities in our deaths as well. Right now we’re looking at about 50 percent, maybe a little bit more of cases, occurring in African Americans. We’re also seeing more than 50 percent of the deaths occurring in African Americans. This is troubling, obviously. We are also seeing that in those deaths there’s a higher rate of underlying chronic medical problems. This is not surprising. We knew that those individuals who are most impacted, and have a higher risk of death and complications are those individuals with chronic underlying problems. The individuals who are elderly in our population.

Dr. Byers: (05:10)
When we think about some of the things that we need to do as Mississippians, one of the things I want to remind individuals is if you do get tested, if your physician has enough of the suspicion for you to be tested for COVID-19. That’s the time that you need to start isolating. Don’t wait for the test results. If you’re tested what our recommendation is to begin that home isolation at that point. And we have some instructions that we’re giving out to any individual who’s tested at one of our testing clinics that we’re having throughout the state. And that is to go ahead and start isolating at that point. Wait for your results. Don’t go and run a bunch of errands if you’re sick. And even if your test is negative, please stay home until you’re symptom free for at least 48 hours. Because you may have something else that can be transmitted to other individuals as well.

Dr. Byers: (06:09)
So we’re at a critical time. We are not at our peak yet. We need to continue to stay the course. We’re going to continue to do vigorous investigation around each case. Vigorous contact investigation. And make sure that we continue to protect those folks who are most vulnerable from getting infection.

Thank you Dr. Byers. As you know, it is critically important that every Mississippian step up in these times. It is critically important that you do everything you can to take care of yourself. Because if you take care of yourself, if you self isolate. If you adhere to the shelter in place order. If you only go to your essential business operations or if you are an essential employee. If you only go to work, and you do so responsibly. We are going to continue to see a flattening of this curve limiting the total number of cases which ultimately will, hopefully, mitigate and minimize all unnecessary deaths from this. Every single death is tragic. And we want to mitigate and minimize those if at all possible. Stay home. Stay safe. Take care of yourself. And take care of your neighbors. So with that I’ll open the floor to questions. And we’ll start to my right here with Scott.

Scott: (07:44)
Governor, are you worried about people, for lack of a better description, becoming stir-crazy? Having been cooped up and trying to stay in so long now feeling they have to get out for lack of any other explanation.

I’m very concerned about that. As we have had conversations over many weeks now and when we talked about the shelter in place order. The health department, Dr. Dobbs, Dr. Byers, all of the experts have said, and I completely agree. That we can only do a shelter in place order for so long. It just won’t work if it’s weeks and weeks and months and months on end. It’s the reason that we made the decision as we were going into what we believe would potentially be the peak resource allocation time period. Which originally we were thinking probably was April 21 or 22 which is now being estimated to be April, 17,18 19 somewhere in that range. And we don’t know exactly when it’s going to be. But we know it’s going to be soon. It’s the reason that we have issued the shelter in place order.

It is concerning though. You probably heard me say last week that in the week prior, in the state of Tennessee, there had been more deaths from suicide than there had been from COVID-19. In that one week period. Now that’s not necessarily true anymore. But that is something that is real. People are struggling. They’re struggling.

You know the way I described it earlier today is this. People who have the virus are scared of what the impact is going to be to them. People who don’t have the virus are scared if they’re going to get it. And a lot of other people, tens of thousands of them are scared because they’re now out of work because nonessential businesses have been shut down. And so they’re scared and wondering where their next meal is going to come from. I am very concerned about that. I know that these are challenging times. But I also know that if we can stick together. And if we as a state, no matter where we come from. No matter our geographic diversity. No matter our political affiliation. If we can stick together for the next several weeks and flatten our curve, lessen the impact on our healthcare system. Then we can come out of this and we can be better and stronger on the other end. It’s just we’re at a critical time right now. And one that we must all work together to come out of. Yes ma’am.

Speaker 1: (10:21)
Dr Byers, you mentioned the racial disparity. I knew that we had asked on a few occasions about that. And now knowing that 50 or more cases were African Americans. More than 50 percent you said the deaths were African Americans. Is there anything, or is it too early to know, is there anything that can change resource wise perhaps in places like the Delta? Where we know that folks are at a higher risk because of the demographics?

Dr. Byers: (10:48)
Well, certainly testing needs to occur. And we’ll have those discussions to make sure that we have testing available. We need to be able to identify those cases. We need to be able to get those cases isolated. Get their contacts quarantined. And protect those individuals who are at highest risk. We know that there can be higher rates of underlying chronic medical problems among African Americans in Mississippi. This is not news. We’ve seen this before. And we know with COVID-19 that it can have a disproportionate impact on those individuals with underlying chronic medical problems. We just need to be aware. And we’re going to be placed in that information on our website.

Speaker 2: (11:34)
Do we know how many of those people who have died did not have insurance?

Dr. Byers: (11:38)
No. That’s not data that we have at this point.

Speaker 2: (11:42)
Is that something you’d be looking? There may be a correlation between those people not having access to-

Dr. Byers: (11:51)
Right. And I get where you’re going.

Speaker 2: (11:55)
To lead up to these deaths, so. So it may not be something that [inaudible 00:11:59], the health department is looking. But is that something that may be on your radar?

Speaker 2: (12:03)
… the health department is looking, but is that something that may be on your radar, governor, as you look to face the healthcare challenges beyond COVID-19 here in Mississippi?

There’s no question that there are a lot of different reasons that the number of cases, as well as the death rates are higher amongst our African American population. Number one, as was mentioned earlier, the underlying health conditions. We’ve talked repeatedly about the role that things like diabetes and obesity and other chronic healthcare issues play. We also have to continue to redouble our efforts to communicate with individuals across our state. We’re trying to work hard. We are encouraging leaders in the African American community, but leaders across our state, to also step up and communicate to either, if you’re an elected leader, to your constituents, if you’re a pastor to your parishioners. Let’s communicate and talk about the dangers that exist out there. There are dangers to anyone that has chronic medical conditions.

Yesterday, I mentioned, in our call with the vice president, he was very clear the federal act that passed, the federal government is going to pay for COVID-19 related expenses for anyone who is uninsured. Many, many, many private health insurers, for those who have private health insurance, have waived copays for those that are affected by COVID-19. And so what I would say to the people of Mississippi is, do not allow the financial challenges that were either preexisting before COVID-19, or that are now a challenge because of the economic disaster that is before us, do not allow that to keep you from going and seeking help and seeking testing at our test sites, which we have moved around the state. We’re going to continue to focus, I believe we were in Moss Point yesterday, if I’m not mistaken. Moss Point is an area of our state where we’ve certainly seen a high number of cases, particularly within the African American community in that particular city. And so we are trying to push resources to those communities where we’re seeing clusters and outbreaks and Moss Point is a fine example of that.

Yes sir.

Speaker 4: (14:33)
I guess I want to clear this up from what’s going around social media right now, and this perception that there’s a possibility you could catch COVID-19 from your pets. There was a story about some tigers that caught COVID-19 and so some people I’ve seen on social media, saying or a worry that people have the perception that you could get this from your pet. Could you address that?

Dr. Byers: (14:54)
I certainly can. Thank you. We don’t have any data or indication that individuals can become infected from their pets. Now, we know that some animals, and obviously it’s been demonstrated that certain cats can become infected, and so our recommendation for individuals who are infected with COVID-19 is to allow other family members to take care of that pet or to have some distancing from that pet, if you’re the primary caregiver. We don’t want those pets infected, but we don’t have any data that indicates that there can be transmission from your pets.

Speaker 5: (15:35)
Dr. Byers?

Dr. Byers: (15:35)
Yes sir.

Speaker 5: (15:37)
Recently MSPH started reporting the private lab testing that’s being done and that seems to be the higher proportion of numbers. Can I ask you is that the number of samples collected for testing or the number of completed test results we have?

Dr. Byers: (15:47)
Those are the number of individuals that we have a completed test result for.

Speaker 5: (15:49)
I’m receiving reports from providers that what they’re being asked from actual, on the clinic level, is how many samples they’re collecting. Is that information coming from the private labs, specifically, Quest and [crosstalk 00:04:06]?

Dr. Byers: (16:07)
Right. Our information comes directly from those commercial labs through electronic lab reporting.

Speaker 5: (16:13)
Quick follow up, are we collecting racial demographic data on who’s being tested?

Dr. Byers: (16:19)
We do have that data. We don’t have it published yet, but that’s certainly something that we’re going to be looking at. As you can imagine, we’re getting a whole lot of data collected right now and it’s going to take some time to look through that data. Going back to the insurance question, certainly, we have multiple data sources. We’ll be able to tell, especially from hospitalized patients, who’s been insured, who hasn’t been insured or what their payer source is. So we have many different data sources that we’re going to be looking at over time.

Speaker 5: (16:48)
And real quick, last question.

Dr. Byers: (16:49)
Yes sir.

Speaker 5: (16:50)
Because the question is being asked at the clinical level, how many samples are being collected, is that data available so we can see maybe the footprint of the testing to come?

Dr. Byers: (17:00)
That data that we get on labs is reported directly from the laboratories that are performing the test.

Speaker 5: (17:08)
I’m being told the clinics are being asked for data and then sending it directly to MSPH.

Dr. Byers: (17:14)
Let me get back to you on that one.

Speaker 5: (17:15)
Thank you.

Speaker 6: (17:16)
Do we know how many have been tested so far now? Are there new numbers?

Dr. Byers: (17:20)
We’re currently getting that data to update those numbers, but it’s going to be over the number that we had yesterday, which was almost 21,000.

Just as a reminder, as it relates to testing, it is now required by the federal government that all testing is reported to the CDC. Obviously in this entire process, decisions that are based on data are much better than decisions that are based on emotion and the best way to make the best decisions based upon the best data is to have the best data available. That’s the reason that the bill that the president signed on last Friday night requires the aggregation of that data. And so because of that, the private labs, and we have offered, and I commend the department of health, if the private labs report to the department of health, the department health then reports it to the CDC as is required. And the private labs have met their federal requirements because we aggregate it and send it to them. But that’s critically important.

We were over 21,000 test in Mississippi yesterday. That put us at somewhere between 135 to 145, 150% of the national average, in terms of the fact that we had tested approximately 7,000 per 1 million residents. Testing has been an area, and by the way, that’s without significant federal resources on testing. When you look at the large number of tests that have been done in places like New York and New Jersey, and even in the city of New Orleans, a big reason for that is that the federal government has really directed many of their testing resources to those areas where those clusters exist. I’ve got to commend the Mississippi State Department of Health, but also UMC and the university of Southern Mississippi and everyone that has pitched in. Our testing has actually been a shining light in Mississippi when compared to many other States around the country. All of whom by the way, are working diligently to do more tests and we are as well.

Speaker 7: (19:32)
Jefferson Davis County has a high percentage of African American population. They don’t have any cases reported at this point. But has there been testing done there and if not, is there plans to do testing there?

Dr. Byers: (19:43)
Something that we can look at that.

Speaker 7: (19:46)
Do you know now if there has been testing there?

Dr. Byers: (19:50)
I don’t know that there has been a testing clinic that we’ve conducted there, but we can look at putting that on the list. Absolutely.

Speaker 8: (20:00)
Is there any more timeframe on when those additional hospital beds could be put to use at Shelby and the procurement of beds in North Mississippi?

So as I said yesterday, our goal is to have those beds ready and able to take patients whenever they are needed. That is the timeframe. We have teams that are doing engineering assessments and other items. I was told originally that that entire process could happen within seven to eight days and I advised them that sooner than that is when it’s going to happen and I trust that they’re going to make that happen.

But again, remember, the way we are planning for this in our surge plan that I described yesterday, assumes the scenario from the IHME data dated April 1. Now they significantly reduced their projections in the last 48 hours. But we utilized our own internal data, but we looked at the April 1 data from that particular model and we looked at it and said, “This is what our needs are,” and then we added 50% more onto it. So I can’t tell you with certainty that we’re going to need those 400 additional beds. In fact, I’m not sure that we are. What I’m telling you is our job is to plan for the worst and pray for the best and expect somewhere in between. And so that’s why we’re putting those resources online. And I’ll let director Michel, if you want to speak to… you may have a more updated information than I as we have not talked about this today.

Director Michel: (21:47)
Well governor, I would reiterate what you said is that absolutely we want to have those beds available in the hopes that we do not have to use them. The governor was very clear on when we would have those beds available, which would be prior to when they would be needed and we’ve all been looking toward that date as being our peak time period. Those initial beds would be readily available within that timeline and can surge greater if we needed that.

Speaker 8: (22:14)
I don’t know if we’re at a point where we could say we’re 150 beds away from needing to go into that stockpile yet.

I don’t think we’re at a point where we could say we’re 150 beds away. In fact, we’re not at a point where we could say we’re going to be 500 beds away because remember, these beds, again, we’re at 150% of what expected need was on April the 1, when the total number of cases were significantly higher than they’re projected to be today, at least by this one particular model. But more importantly, remember that these beds will only be utilized after our initial surge plan, which is to take those patients that are in some of the, perhaps, in the larger facilities once they reach a point at which they are recovering. We’re going to utilize the healthcare system in our state first.

And so in other words, if for instance, and of course I’m not a medical doctor, but we’ve spent a lot of time working on this over the last several weeks. But in normal times, if someone has a major trauma case and they go to one of our smaller, more rural hospitals that perhaps don’t have a specialist, well, we utilize our trauma care system, perhaps, to make sure that we transfer that patient into a facility that has whatever they may need. So if a patient were to need heart surgery, for instance, that patient will be transferred to a facility that has the ability to treat that patient for whatever the medical needs they have. Well, this is…

For whatever the medical needs they have. Well this is exactly the same model, it’s just in reverse. Right now, if the individual is at a facility that is not able to treat the absolute worse COVID-19 patient, and as I appreciate it, at their worst, the patients require a significant amount of help. That patient may be transferred to a facility that is larger, that has more resources, that has more technology, that has more specialists. But, at some point, if that patient, over a period of three days or five days or seven days, however long it takes, once they get through the worst of it and there in the recovery phase, it may be that we then can push that patient back out to that hospital that, A, is probably closer to where they live, closer to where their family is, and so that’s going to be the first mode of surge is utilizing the system that we already have in place.

If you’ll recall, we had Dr. [Hayes 00:25:02] and Dr. [Brunson 00:25:03] here one day late last week, and it’s their group of medical professionals working with the Department of Health, with Dr. [Buyers 00:25:12] and Dr. [Dobbs 00:25:13] and [Jim Craig 00:25:14], as well as with the hospitals, we had hospital administration officials in that group, they are the ones that are working on what is basically the hub-and-spoke model. So we’re going to send them out to the hospitals initially, and the reason we’re doing that is really for a lot of reasons.

Number one, we already have health care workers that are used to going into those hospitals, and so we don’t have to staff up a new facility immediately. In addition to that, a lot of the facilities in our more rural communities, their total case load today is significantly lower than it was three months ago. Why? Because we’ve asked for elective surgeries to be shut down, for instance, so as to save PPE, things such as that. And so, again, think in terms of hub-and-spoke, where, if a patient came to this hospital, they got to a point where they didn’t need ICU beds, they didn’t need a ventilator, but they also didn’t need to go home, then we could transfer them back out, and that’s the model that they’re working on.

Mississippi is well-known for our trauma care system. Mississippi had one of the first and one of the best trauma care units in all of the country, and the model that we’re utilizing in COVID-19 initially is to use just that, where we have the hub-and-spoke. Now, if we get to a point where all the beds are full in those hub hospitals, all the beds are full in those spoke hospitals, that’s when we have carryover into the transitional beds that we’re putting at Camp Shelby and ultimately up in Northeast Mississippi. Dr. Buyers, if you want to add to that, please feel free to do so.

Speaker 10: (26:53)
No, I think you’re right on target, Governor. This is a way for us to make sure that we continue to have availability of beds. And I think that we can’t overemphasize the measures that we’re taking to at least delay non-elective surgeries or these non-urgent or emergency admissions.

Speaker 11: (27:20)
Do you have any more information on the testing in the DOC [inaudible 00:27:24] test results that are still being waited on?

I have not gotten an update on that today, but as soon as I get one, I’ll let you know.

Speaker 11: (27:31)
Can I ask you a quick question on the staff that tested positive? You said that they were not at any specific facility, does this mean they were a satellite facility associated within DOC?

As I understand it, and I will confirm this, but as I understand it, they were at one of the many offices that the Department of Corrections has, not at a facility itself, but I will confirm that for you. [Jared 00:27:50]?

Speaker 12: (27:51)
Have you had any of your employees test positive for COVID-19?

Speaker 13: (27:55)
We have not.

Speaker 14: (28:01)
The new website, that allows for that network to be built out for future disasters as well, right? It’s not COVID-19-specific, this is something that perhaps it’d already been in the works maybe before this

Speaker 13: (28:14)
Absolutely, that’s a good question. We actually started this initiative prior to COVID, we did not bring it fully onboard until just prior to, so the timing was good, we would have rather had it up and running prior to this, we would have had a larger database to go to, but, fortunately, during this response, we had so much of an overwhelming desire to want to help, we were able to collect a lot of these. So we’ve collected a lot, but it was an initiative that did predate COVID.

I’m seeing no other questions at this time. As I have done the last two days, I’m going to practice what I preach and, as I said, I want to bring joy to Mississippians and I want every Mississippian to reach out to their friends and their neighbors. I’ve been asked to say happy birthday to a few folks and I’m going to do that right now, starting with Garret Myers, who had his 21st birthday yesterday. And Cameron Weaver, Cameron Weaver is the daughter of Commander of Camp McCain, Colonel Richard Weaver, she turned 14 yesterday, happy birthday, Cameron.

Today, April the 7th, we have Annalise Campo turning five. Kayla Krill, Kayla tells me she loves singing and dancing to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and I do too. Matthew Hamm says loves his daughter and enjoys playing pool. Wyatt Daniels, happy birthday, wants a big Nerf gun party with his friends once we’re safe from this virus. Marley Bryant is a student at the University of Mississippi, she goes to Old Miss, and she wants to work in government one day and, Marley, I will tell you, that is a noble thing for you to want to do, and there are literally thousands of state workers and federal workers that are working around-the-clock right now to keep our fellow Mississippians safe.

Noah Hampton, Cole Alison loves football, baseball, and mud riding. Kimberly Hurst and Holly Hurst are twins, they turned 21-years-old today. Cole Redwine, from Amory, has a birthday today, happy birthday. Regan Beckham, she loves astrology and excited about the super pink Moon being tonight, on her birthday, which I understand may be the first full Moon of spring. Josiah Goods loves to draw and loves animals. Riley Cooper is from my hometown of Florence, Mississippi, happy birthday, Riley.

Chloe Harrison loves to sing and paint, happy birthday. Jake Horton turns 12, he loves Star Wars, Legos, and acting in his community’s theater group. Audrey Johnson, from Greenville. Courtney and Carley Cochran are twins from Waynesboro, Mississippi, happy birthday. Elia Beltrim enjoys going to church, enjoys playing softball, and loves to ride her four-wheeler. Her mom says she is sweet, loving, and that she couldn’t be more proud of you. Elia, your mom loves you and is proud of you and happy birthday.

Austin Page loves to play baseball and loves playing video games. Well, Austin, you need to play more baseball and less video games as soon as this virus is over so you can get out and have a great time. Mami Bird loves theater. Happy birthday to Drake Wilson, experienced his first birthday in years that won’t be spent playing in a baseball tournament. I can’t wait ’til we can get back and the great games will be played again. Sean Pitney Swayne and Kendall Coleman are both from Oxford, their teacher says they are two amazing students who also always give back to their community.

Amad and Rashad Sorex, twins who love to read, bake cookies, play video games, and enjoy playing board games together. Elizabeth Head is turning 13 today, happy birthday. Avery Clare Underwood loves helping her mom with her little sisters and loves to be outdoors with family. Now is a great time to spend time outside with your immediate family, be sure you’re socially distancing. Oliver Crosby plans to be an NFL superstar one day. Oliver, I’m rooting for you.

Zachary Shram, from Horn Lake, has a birthday. Bradley Morell loves Fortnite and Disney World. Happy birthday to Tinley Helton. Tinley attends St. James School, she loves soccer, basketball, cheerleading, and horseback riding. She misses her family, her friends, and her teachers. She loves all animals, including lizards. Noah Reeves is turning five and has a brother arriving next week. Noah, we’re praying for you and happy birthday and we’re praying for your mom who’s having this new brother coming next week.

Reed Paxton Gatlin, from Brookhaven, has a birthday today. Michael G., in Madison County, says he loves grape juice, but he doesn’t like snakes, happy birthday, Michael. Ridge Grace loves mac and cheese and is always cheerful and loving. Happy birthday to Wesley Bradley, who loves Mickey Mouse. Grant Alexander, in Starkville. Happy birthday Lila Stokes, Lila’s turning three today. Branson, from Bay St. Louis, loves helicopters and airplanes. Jonathan, from Coldwater, loves making people laugh. Cassidy Shoemaker turns nine today, happy birthday, Cassidy.

Kiera Smith, eating crawfish and playing basketball is what she loves to do, and I do too. Alexa Vaughn, from Carriere. Courtney Smith, in Belmont. Anna Leigh Humbers is turning four today, happy birthday, Anna Leigh. Ainsley Heron loves softball and volleyball. John Davis Causey, from Greenville. Piper Boudro, she will be nine today, happy birthday.

To Amber Branson, who loves dogs. To Courtney Griffin, from Senatobia, she loves crawfish. Paige Bowser, from Vicksburg. To Madison Faulkner, Madison is turning 17 today, happy birthday, Madison. Lily and Cory are red-headed identical twins, happy birthday. Courtney Foxworth, in Columbus. Evie Boyd loves her sister and her kittycat, Sugar, happy birthday, Evie.

Andrea Johnson, from Columbus. Kayleigh Brown is turning four today, happy birthday, Kayleigh. She had a party, she says, with just her mom, her dad, and her siblings, and they made the best of it. William Evers, in Florence, again, in my hometown, is having a birthday today, happy birthday, William. Taylor Jolly is funny and energetic child, she has a charm that you just can’t help but love, happy birthday, Taylor.

Aiden Dyer, from Purvis. Izzy Dupree is celebrating her sweet 16th in quarantine. Garrett Blaine Smith loves to ride his horse. Happy birthday, Chad Bryden and Aaron Sanders, who turn 16 today. Aiden Powell loves singing and the aquarium. Rayley Carpenter is the reigning Young Miss Queen City. Rayley, happy birthday in the Queen City.

Jay Mitchell, from Southhaven, has a birthday. Acelin Wallace is a freshman at the University of Southern Mississippi, happy birthday, Acelin. Jacey, from Canton, loves her chickens, happy birthday, Jacey. Kendall Middleton is a kindergarten at Canton Academy, happy birthday, Kendall. Ryan Glass has a birthday today, as does Aiden Malley, who loves history, and Lillian Grace Ollie, who loves her baby brother, Jacob, happy birthday to both of y’all. Darby Still, in Fulton, Aiden Williams-

[inaudible 00:36:00] Darby [Still 00:36:01] in Fulton. [Aiden 00:36:03] Williams turns 16.

Kirsten [Neil 00:36:06] enjoys swimming and hanging out with friends. Kirsten, happy birthday, and as soon as we get through this pandemic you’ll get to hang out with your friends again, and I look forward to you enjoying that.

Parker Ryan from Wesson, and Ben Ton enjoys writing and creating comments. Abigail Jenkins is turning 13. Ruby Marie from Amory has a birthday today. Hannah Reedy is celebrating her sweet 16. Lillian Wright is turning five. Happy birthday, Lillian.

ZJ Grimes is a two year old. She goes to PT three times a week because she has Erb’s palsy, and she has been doing great. ZJ, we are praying for you.

Alexis [Kitrell 00:36:52], 16 years old from Mize, Mississippi. She has been using her time at home to make mask and donate them to those in need. Alexis, that’s that Mississippi spirit that we need to keep up. Thank you for what you’re doing.

Shelby Clark turned 16, and although she can not get her driver’s license, she’s keeping a good attitude. I know that’s hard. You wait 16 years to get that driver’s license and you have a birthday during the first pandemic in the last 102 years in America, and therefore the DMV locations are closed because we’re trying to make sure we don’t get large crowds in small gatherings. Stay patient; you’ll get there. Lawson Sanders is obsessed with tractors and says he’s going to be a farmer when he grows up. Lawson, we need more farmers in the world. Let me say a special thank you to all the farmers out there in Mississippi and throughout this nation. You are supplying us with the food that we are eating. The supply chain has not broken down. It’s something that’s been promised by leaders across America, and we’re proud of you.

Happy first birthday for Rhett from Eudora. He was born with blood clots on his brain and experiences seizures, but he continues to amaze his parents, Mimi, and Pop, who say he is the definition of a fighter. Thank you, Rhett. You’re an inspiration to all of us. I know there’s a lot of Mississippians out there that are fighting. We can follow Rhett’s lead.

Brooke from Lexington loves cartoons. I’m sorry, Brock [Lawsh 00:38:21] from Lexington likes cartoons. Steven Rogers loves baseball, hunting, and fishing. [Ainsley Herron 00:02:28] from Batesville has a birthday today. Molly loves her family, loves to dance, and has a heart of gold. Happy birthday, Minnie Bib from Pearl.

Happy birthday, Connor Smith, who plays on his high school baseball team, loves the Saints, the Braves, and the Mississippi State Bulldogs. [Larrick 00:38:48] Bonner from Madison loves helping others. Alexa Salmon, Alexa Salmon has a birthday today. Happy birthday, Alexa. To [Malique Windom 00:02:59], lefthanded, loves to draw, and loves to listen to music. Happy birthday, Malique.

Brad Whittington is a hard-working first responder. Brad, thank you for your service to our country. Thank you for your service to our state. Our first responders are on the front line, and they’re stepping up every single day.

To Cody [Stogner 00:39:18] from Oxford. Cody is turning 11 today. Happy birthday, Cody.

Christopher Hubbard is learning to play the drums and how to shoot a bow and arrow. His dad’s birthday is on April the eighth, so happy birthday to both of you.

Nathan James Carter is turning one today. Happy birthday to Carter Hollingshead and Lindsay Miller. Lindsay likes to spend her time learning to twirl fire batons. Carter loves martial arts.

Addison [Laird 00:39:46] is a junior at the Mississippi School of Art, majoring in film making. Good luck, Addison, and happy birthday.

Hawkins Gable from Brookhaven, Jaden Brown from Columbus, Anna Claire [Loris 00:39:57] from Moss Point, happy birthday.

To Hudson and Dawson Parker, twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome survivors, congratulations, happy birthday, and we’re praying for you.

To [Antwan 00:40:08] Washington, loves monster trucks. To [Miley 00:40:12] Massey from Oxford and Kirstin Ham. Happy 14th birthday, Kirsten.

To Elizabeth [Schiller 00:40:19] from Saucier. From Brady Wooten, who’s celebrating his first double digit birthday today, 10 years old. Brady loves to fish, Nerf guns, and playing at the creek. His favorite color is blue.

Happy third birthday to Lucas Jones who loves farm tractors.

Happy 10th birthday to Carson Sanders, who loves his Poppy’s Peterbilt truck. I should say thank you to all the truckers out there, because while our farmers are supplying the food, our truckers are delivering it and making sure our supply chain continues without interruption.

To Mr. Lee [Stingson 00:40:54]. Lee, happy birthday. Congratulations on number 87. Stay safe, stay home, and be careful.

Britt Baker is turning 15 today. Hannah [Aldred 00:41:07] will be five, and Hannah loves unicorns.

[Maya 00:41:11] O’Connor from Gautier has a birthday today.

John Pitner Swain is a great student leader, athlete, and worshiper of Jesus Christ. John, happy birthday.

Jordan Dell from Quitman. Kaley Blaylock plans to have a sweet 16 in quarantine party with her friends via social media. Kaley, that’s the spirit. That’s exactly what we need to be doing. Proud of you.

From Purvis, Olivia Steele, happy birthday.

Brand Boyd, he wants to be the first person in line to get that driver’s license as soon as the DMV opens back up. Well, there was someone that I mentioned earlier that might get to be in line before you are. Y’all have to race to it, but we’re going to get those back open just as soon as it’s safe for all Mississippians.

Carla wants to be an air traffic controller. Happy birthday to Cameron Weaver, to Logan Helms, to Daniel Clam. To [Laken Farve 00:00:42:02], happy 10th birthday. To Katie Darnell from Lewisburg, happy birthday.

To Cassidy Holmes, she is very protective of her younger siblings, and she is turning 10 years old today. Cassidy, I understand that you love to dance, so why don’t you perform tonight for your parents?

To Hawkins Gable, he wants a football birthday party. I think a lot of us just want football to be back. Certainly by this fall, I’m hopeful that’ll be the case.

To Liam Hurt from Tupelo, Abigail Mills, to [Livvy 00:42:37] Kate Chism. Livvy Kate loves the outdoors.

Cynthia James, Tabitha [Sill 00:06:44], happy birthday. Ava Claire Smith. To Lex Hernandez at Madison Middle School. Happy birthday, Lex.

Happy 15th to Chloe. Happy 14th to [Rhylin 00:42:56] Lacey. Jeremiah Douglas from Canton, Jimmy Pearson in Verona, [Jaylin 00:43:00] Moore, Anna Hayes Davis from Meridian, Elijah Jones.

Happy birthday, Anthony White, Cooper Allgood. Happy sweet 16th to Aaron Sanders.

Earp Wyatt Porter turns four today, and he loves the Flash and Spider-Man.

Luke Allen loves playing outside with his brother, Hogan. [Jazlyn 00:43:20] Ross from Indianola, happy birthday, Jazlyn.

To Sarah Jane [Hollinghead 00:07:26], she loves her new bunny, Taffy, and her puppy, Bronco. I understand that today, James Donald, who is a lover of dinosaurs, has a birthday.

Happy birthday, Cooper Allgood, Amelia Barron, Wesley Earl, who turns three today, and Canyon [Tubby 00:00:43:44], who turns 10 today.

Isabella Nickerson loves doing pageants and being in the Girl Scouts. Vivian Richardson.

Happy birthday to Rhett Corley, who turns nine today. Rhett loves to play the ukulele, so that’s a great opportunity on your ninth birthday, Rhett, to gather your family together in your home and play them a concert.

Brock Malone loves dinosaurs and Spider-Man. He can’t wait to go back to the Natural Science Museum when it reopens, and we can’t wait for it to reopen.

Finally, happy birthday to twins from Clinton, Mississippi, Brayden and [Briley 00:44:26] Wilkins. Happy birthday, have a great time, be careful and be safe.

To all Mississippians, we’re all in this together, and we’re all going to get through this together. Thank you, and God bless.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves COVID-19 Briefing Transcript April 7

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