Gov. Tate Reeves to end state's COVID-19 emergency order in August
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Jun. 18—TUPELO — Gov. Tate Reeves on Friday announced that the state's COVID-19 emergency orders will officially expire on August 15, ending more than a year of emergency orders related to the deadly virus.
"While a State of Emergency should no longer be necessary after August 15, all Mississippians should remain vigilant, get vaccinated, and follow public health guidance," Reeves said in a statement.
The first-term Republican governor also announced that the state will cease all emergency COVID-19 operations with the Mississippi National Guard on July 15. The guard has helped the state health department with logistics operations at testing sites and vaccination centers.
"The Governor's timeline to lift Mississippi's State of Emergency declaration on August 15, 2021, ensures our over 1,500 service members complete all necessary out-processing requirements and receive the benefits and entitlements they have earned during their dedicated service to our state," Maj. Gen. Janson Boyles, the adjutant general of the Mississippi National Guard, said in a written statement.
Reeves' office maintains that the timeline for withdrawing National Guard troops has been in the works for months, but the announcement comes two days after House Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, publicly called on the governor to end the state's COVID-19 orders.
"Unless there is some reason for the declaration of a state of emergency to continue, then on behalf of the people of the state of Mississippi who are ready to return their lives to normal, we call on you to declare the state of emergency over," Gunn wrote to Reeves on Wednesday.
In response to questions about Gunn's letter, a spokesman for the governor's office previously told the Daily Journal that the state of emergency remained in effect to ensure that National Guard troops could get paid for assisting the state with COVID-19 operations.
Even though Mississippi has remained under a state of emergency order with the virus, there were virtually no safety protocols in effect.
A spokesman for Gunn's office did not immediately respond to questions from the Daily Journal on why the leader of the House ultimately decided to write the letter.
The exchange from the two state leaders comes at a time when Mississippi has the lowest percentage of its citizens fully vaccinated of any state in the nation. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only about 30% of Mississippians have been fully inoculated from the virus.
Gunn the past few months has been sharply critical of the governor's response to the pandemic.
Gunn on May 10 also sent Reeves a letter pressuring him to either strictly enforce job search requirements for those receiving unemployment benefits or end the state's participation in a pandemic-linked federal expansion of joblessness benefits.
