As Christmas looms closer, coronavirus numbers continue to rise.

On Tuesday, the Mississippi Department of Health released its latest COVID-19 statistics. For Lincoln County, there were 2,223 total cases and 73 total deaths. This is a case increase of seven since Monday.

After investigation of death certificates, two new deaths were added to the count for Lincoln County. These deaths occurred between Dec. 8 and Dec. 14.

Statewide, there were 236 current outbreaks in long-term care facilities. In Lincoln County, there were 166 total LTC outbreaks and 36 total LTC deaths as of Tuesday.

Hospitalizations continue to rise, with 1,238 total patients being treated in hospitals across the state. Out of that total, 310 patients are in intensive care and 187 patients are on ventilators.

In Lincoln County, hospitalizations have increased. On Friday, King’s Daughters Medical Center had 11 ICU patients in their hospital, with nine of those patients on ventilators.

According to KDMC CEO Alvin Hoover, the hospital only has eight ICU beds.

“Thursday our ER called 25 hospitals to finally transfer a patient from our ER to a large medical center in Arkansas,” Hoover said. “Friday a critical patient had to wait more than seven hours before finally being transferred to a large medical center in New Orleans. The stories are similar all over the state.”