Court to resume Monday morning

In his Wednesday COVID-19 update, Blytheville Mayor James Sanders reported an increase of 31 active coronavirus cases in Mississippi County since his last report on Nov. 25th.

Additionally, Blytheville Police Chief Ross Thompson reported there are 220 active locations in the county and approximately 80 in the Blytheville area. Active locations are defined any place where an active case has been detected. However, it is possible for one active location to consist of more than one positive case.

“A lot of people think because Blytheville is the largest city in Mississippi County, it would have the largest number [of active locations]. When we actually broke that down last week, about 60% wasn’t actually in Blytheville,” Thompson said. “Don’t think that because you live outside the city limits that these numbers don’t affect you.”

The Blytheville area includes towns such as Amorel, Gosnell, Half Moon, etc.

As of Friday, there have been 3,358 cases in the county, with 294 active, 2,981 recoveries and 82 deaths.

Meanwhile, Thompson also announced the tentative reopening date for the Mississippi County Chickasawba District Court as Dec. 7.

Citizens are encouraged to call the court clerk’s office to ensure and verify court dates for civil and criminal cases.

This Zoom meeting also included Dr. Jennifer Conner, Dr. Brookshield Laurent and director of operations Tiffany Calloway of the Delta Population Health Institute.

They announced there will be free drive-thru COVID-19 testing on Dec.7 at First Baptist Church from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Both Antigen and PCR tests will be available but Laurent urged everyone to continue following the regulations and remain alert regardless of your test results.

“I want to state that as we’re doing these testings to not have a false sense of security,” Laurent said. “Even if you do get tested and it comes back negative, it means you’re negative for the moment. Sometimes when we get a negative result, it may just be too early to detect and your body may not have shown it to us yet. So you still have to be very cautious. Wear your mask and stay six feet apart.”

Connor added that on this day, citizens will be able to perform a quick nasal swab on themselves and is not the deep nasal swab.

Concerning vaccines in the future, Mississippi County Health Officer Andrews Pirtle said she doesn't expect the vaccination to reach the general public until April, May, or possibly June. Still she vouched for the community to reduce their fear of vaccinations, starting with the flu shot.

Pirtle also announced the sickle cell drive on Dec. 10 and 11 at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church.

“It’s very important that we give blood,” Pirtle said. “Sickle cell patients are unfortunate that when they’re sick, they lose a lot of blood. But the blood donations have really decreased. And we’re really encouraging African-Americans and Hispanics to donate because we have a higher amount of sickle cell [cases]. It is crucial because our people have sickle cell and do not have enough blood donations.”