WCBI NEWS AT SIX 11/21/2020

WCBI NEWS AT SIX 11/21/2020

Open the mississippi state department of health reports 1,972 new cases of covid-19 with15 new deaths.

éé 897 people are hospitalized with confirmed or suspected symptoms across the state.

éé 222 of those patients are in i.c.u.

éé in our area, lee county has some of the highest numbers with 68 new cases.

éé lowndes county has 47, layfayette county has 46, and pontotoc has 32 .

éé and monroe is reporting 25 new cases.

éé intro those case numbers as we approach another holiday are the reason several medical professionals gathered for a press conference.

éé wearing a mask, social distancing and not gathering with folks outside your household.

éé courtney ann jackson has a recap .éé "let me be clear.

Things are bad and getting worse.

We're seeing the rate of rise of hospitalizations that we haven't seen yet at all.

We are seeing increased case burdens that we haven't seen yet at all."

State health officer dr. thomas dobbs says it looks very like that this fall surge is going to be more severe than the summer surge.

That demand is being felt by those working at the front lines.

"we have more than 81,000 nursing workforce providers and yet today that is still not enough."

Other states that can offer more money are now pulling from what was already a short staffed industry-leading to even longer hours for nurses.

Who are now pleading with you.

"i like the idea of team mississippi when it comes to covid because there's no one of us that's going to solve this.

It's going to take all of us."

Part of that team mentality they say is not throwing caution to the wind in an attempt to celebrate holiday traditions like usual.

"just look at our recent history.

Go back to memorial day.

Go back to the fourth of july.

Go back to labor day.

We're just two weeks out from halloween.

We saw spikes and positive infection rates each time that occurred.

Fourth of july probably being the greatest of those.

We cannot let thanksgiving and the holidays be another fourth of july."

Less than a week after the total number of us covid-19 cases surpassed 11 million, today they climbed to 12 million.

éé that's according to johns hopkins university.

éé the cdc is advising people to celebrate locally and only with members of their immediate households.

éé cbs news correspondent danya bacchus reports from los angeles.

éé with some 50 million americans planning to travel for thanksgiving, health officials are concerned the pandemic will get worse.

''pause for a moment and do a determination of the risk benefit within your family group, and then when you make your decision, that's your decision.

No one's forcing anything on you.'' as daily new cases approach 200 thousand, and some hospitals become stretched to the limit, the toll on front line healthcare workers is growing.

''at the end of the day, i would go home and go straight to the shower.

Part of this was to protect myself and my family.

But the other part was so i could go cry in the shower and finally reler the day.'' in california, a 10 p- m to 5 a-m curfew goes into effect saturday night in 41 counties, covering most of the state's residents.

Some don't like it.

"it's against everything america stands for there's no way anybody is going to tell me i have to stay at my house."

Like many cities, denver's bars and restaurants are under newly- tightented restrictions.

"we don't have a significant federal response to support anything, restaurants especially, so i think it's huge, if you want businesses to be there when this is all done then you need to support them now."

"i got covid after i came home from college and it destroyed my lungs.'' months after 19- year-old alexa huesgen hobbs survived covid-19, the colorado resident says she's still not fully recovered.

''like if your lungs normally expand like this.

It's like my lungs feel like this.'' hobbs says she wishes she had done more to avoid the virus.

Danya bacchus/cbs news/los angeles.

After a long stretch of dry weather, rain chances have returned to the forecast.

Light showers are possible sunday with some more rain and maybe a little thunder on wednesday.

Thanksgiving looks nice, but we have more rain in the forecast next weekend.

Saturday night: a few clouds will pass by overnight tonight, but no rain is expected.

Lows will be around 50 with generally calm winds.

Sunday: we're expecting some light showers to move through the area on sunday, but it won't be an all day rain.

Rain will be in tupelo in the morning and closer to columbus and starkville by the afternoon and evening.

We'll see some peeks of sun with highs in the low 70s.

After the rain clears your area, temperatures will cool down into the 60s.

Monday-tuesday: nice weather will return to start off the workweek with partly cloudy skies and highs in the 60s.

Morning lows will be in the upper 30s to low 40s.

Wednesday: a cold front will approach the area wednesday, bringing rain and perhaps some thunder in the morning and early afternoon.

As of now, it looks like we'll start to dry out into the late tupelo native swae lee of the american hip hop duo, rae sremmurd, visits his hometown.

éé mayor of tupelo jason shelton presented a proclamation to swae lee at fairpark in front of city hall stating today is " swae day.

" éé swae lee bought bicycles, footballs and basketballs for the children.

éé he addressed the crowd about how great it was to come home and give back.

éé he also spoke about reaching your dreams, and to keep aspiring to succeed and overcome any obstacle life may throw your way.

éé a lee county church is trying to make sure no one goes hungry on thanksgiving week.

éé the anchor church will host two outreaches next week to help needy families across the area.éé on monday, the church's "servant's heart food pantry" will hand out food boxes.

éé thirty to sixty pound boxes of food will be distributed and on thanksgiving day, free thanksgiving lunches will be available at the church, or the meals can be delivered.

éé "it's not that we're not scared of covid, we know it's real, but we know there's people hurting and need help, we want to be here, and our motto is to offer help, hope and healing, and we're not going to let something shut us down when we can feed and help people because we know people are in need."

If you would like if you would like more information you can call anchor church at the number you see on your screen.

éé business was brisk today in one of the largest christmas tree farms in our region.

éé and as wcbi's chad groening reports it's right here in north mississippi.

éé this was opening day of the 2020 christmas tree season at worthey christmas tree farm in hatley.

There are 10- thousand trees on this farm.

But it is more than just coming to buy a fresh cut christmas tree....it's to get the whole christmas experience.

There were tractor rides...you could visit santa...and you could shop and dine at the gift shop and restaurant.

Owner lowell worthey says this is their 10th season on the farm.

We try to have about 13-hundred trees ready every year to sell.

And worthey says they must utilize strict land management skills.

"see every year once we cut like it will be next march we always set out the trees that i have.

We grow them here on the farm and then i have another nursery that we buy from but every year once that tree is cut we plant back in its place and then it takes another five years for that tree to be ready to sell.

And like some of the kind of bigger trees are six or seven years even.

The worthey christmas tree farm is truely a family business, with son carter worthey having grown up here.

"it's kind of like the traditions of it.

I just love the christmas feel about it.

And i love seeing everybody out here.

And i just love to keep the tradition alive and going for 20 more years and so."

And the younger worthey, who studied forestry at itawamba community college understands that virtually all the revenue the farm generates comes at this time of the year, which means you have to budget.

"you kind of have to spread it out through the year.

And we all have part-time jobs outside of the farm to kind of keep the money flowing."

And families came from great distances to pick out a tree.

Justin and allison linder live at columbus air force base where justin is an air force instructor pilot.

Christmas is very special for an air force family.

"the most important part about christmas is you know the life of jesus christ you know him being born and you know we just want to celebrate that through everything that we do.

You know the family time is pretty much the most crucial part about it especially with how busy our lives are in the air force."

"like my husband said christmas is very important in our household.

So jesus is a big one and the reason for the season so we really try to focus on why christmas is so important and just being a family."

And the linders really believe it's important to have a christmas tree grown right here in mississippi.

Chad groening wcbi news hatley.

Christmas tree farm exepects to be sold out in a couple of weeks.

éé for the first time since 1957 caledonia schools have a new name.

éé see how students and community members are working to unify the community.

éé that story is up next, stay with us.

éé for the first time since 1957 caledonia schools have a new name.

éé last week, students at caledonia's elementary, middle and high schools voted to rename themselves the cavaliers after parents and community members called for the removal of the nickname confederates.

éé our stephen pimpo speaks with students who helped choose the name.

éé "such a big change for our school in something that's important...cause a mascot is who we are."

While it may still reside on confederate drive...caledonia high school now has a new name.

After dozens of parents and community members spoke out against the confederates nickname used by caledonia's elementary, middle and high schools, students voted to rename themselves the cavaliers.

"do it for everybody else, all the students so we can have something we can be proud of, a mascot that we can all feel unified under and be able to go out there on a friday night and be proud of it."

The lowndes county school district's board voted unanimously to remove the long time confederates or "feds" name in july.

They then tasked a nine-member committee of the schools' three principals, two community members and four caledonia high school students to pick a new name.

Su: when deciding on the new mascot...students said they wanted something that still incorporated the familiar c logo and the crossed swords.

"out whole saying 'swords up,' we all still get to keep those memories.

As a cheerleader, it's important to feel that, to have that on friday nights.

Sophmore lisa basset was part of the committee overseeing the renaming.

She says that none of her classmates have ever made her feel singled out or different because of the school's old mascot.

"when it comes to the name, i never focused on it.

Of course, we all had it in the back of our mind, that's what it represented, that's what was in the history."

Junior football player will donald was another member and says changing the name doesn't change how close knit the caledonia community is.

"we have been the confederates since i was playing football growing up but i don't see the name as representing caledonia the school, you know?"

"as a community as a whole, we have to represent something that all of us can stand by."

In caledonia...stephe n pimpo...wcbi news cavaliers, commodores and cardinals were the three choices presented for students to vote on.

éé students say the majority of the feedback that they have heard about the change has been positive.

éé after a long stretch of dry weather, rain chances have returned to the forecast.

Light showers are possible sunday with some more rain and maybe a little thunder on wednesday.

Thanksgiving looks nice, but we have more rain in the forecast next weekend.

Saturday night: a few clouds will pass by overnight tonight, but no rain is expected.

Lows will be around 50 with generally calm winds.

Sunday: we're expecting some light showers to move through the area on sunday, but it won't be an all day rain.

Rain will be in tupelo in the morning and closer to columbus and starkville by the afternoon and evening.

We'll see some peeks of sun with highs in the low 70s.

After the rain clears your area, temperatures will cool down into the 60s.

Monday-tuesday: nice weather will return to start off the workweek with partly cloudy skies and highs in the 60s.

Morning lows will be in the upper 30s to low 40s.

Wednesday: a cold front will approach the area wednesday, bringing rain and perhaps some thunder in the morning and early afternoon.

As of now, it looks like we'll start to dry out into the late afternoon and evening.

Highs will be in the mid to upper 60s, but will begin to cool down once the rain stops.

Thursday-friday: fortunately, the rain will be gone by thanksgiving and skies will remain partly cloudy through the day.

Clouds will slowly increase on friday with a shower or two possible in some areas.

Highs will be in the mid 60s with morning lows in the mid 40s.

Saturday: yet another system will bring us the chance for rain next saturday and maybe into sunday.

Temperatures will be cooler yet again with highs in the low 60s.

To get the latest forecast anytime, download the wcbi news app or visit our website at wcbi.com/weather.

You can also get the latest weather updates on facebook, twitter, and instagram.

After a long stretch of dry weather, rain chances have returned to the forecast.

Light showers are possible sunday with some more rain and maybe a little thunder on wednesday.

Thanksgiving looks nice, but we have more rain in the forecast next weekend.

Saturday night: a few clouds will pass by overnight tonight, but no rain is expected.

Lows will be around 50 with generally calm winds.

Sunday: we're expecting some light showers to move through the area on sunday, but it won't be an all day rain.

Rain will be in tupelo in the morning and closer to columbus and starkville by the afternoon and evening.

We'll see some peeks of sun with highs in the low 70s.

After the rain clears your area, temperatures will cool down into the 60s.

Monday-tuesday: nice weather will return to start off the workweek with partly cloudy skies and highs in the 60s.

Morning lows will be in the upper 30s to low 40s.

Wednesday: a cold front will approach the area wednesday, bringing rain and perhaps some thunder in the morning and early afternoon.

As of now, it looks like we'll start to dry out into the late afternoon and evening.

Highs will be in the mid to upper 60s, but will begin to cool down once the rain stops.

Thursday-friday: mississippi state getting ready to face off against georgia...courtney talks the match-up when we come back after an impromtu week off, missisisppi state football is back and getting ready to play as state prepares for a dog fight with the 13th ranked georgia bulldogs nothing was going to stand in the way of m-s-u taking the field even if that means mike leach's squad will be forced to play with only 49 scholarship players the scholarship threshold for teams to be able to compete is 53, however, due to positive covid-19 tests..missisisppi state is left just below the 53-man requirement if you're wondering how that could be -- teams are allowed to opt to play even if you don't meet the 53 player requirement entering the weekend with one postponed game off the schedule and a 2-4 overall record...the bulldogs looking for chances wherever the team can find them georgia and missisippi state kicking off at 6:30 tonight...that game over on the sec network two teams that will not be taking the field this saturday...ole miss and texas a&m the weekend road match-up for the rebels just another game in the southeastern conference to fall victim to covid-19 this is the second game in a row that the aggies have postponed due to positive coronavirus tests within the football program even if ole miss hopes to play texas a&m, the rebels will have to wait until late december if that's even possible that means, right on the horizon...the 2020 egg bowl... according to ole miss head coach lane kiffin...with nothing to do this weekend...his team is starting preparations to play mississippi state kiffin gave some initital thoughts on the egg bowl...take a listen kiffin: "not the friendliest of rivalries is the best way of putting it.

So you know but they're all big games.

Especially when it's s-e-c so it'd be really good to get back on the winning track with this game.

A lot of times these things effect recruiting.

I don't think kids go because a team wins or loses but always as good.

Just awesome to win rivalry games for fans.

They got a whole year of talking about it."

The stage has officially been set for north half finals across missisippi this is what the match-ups will look like for next week in 6a after oxford took down hernando...the chargers will officially head to clinton next week for the 6a north half final in 5a...west point survives to advance and will take on third seeded ridgeland on the road next week in 4a...we get a match-up of two wcbi viewing area teams as itawamba ahs will hit the road and take on the louisville wildcats...louisvill e taking down pontotoc on friday night in 3a...winona and noxubee county will face off for a fierce battle...winona coming off the huge win against amory and noxubee taking down north panola in 2a...the north half will feature another two of our area teams...calhoun city and east union...this one..definitely a potential game of the week contender 1a...nanih waiya will host biggersville...the two best teams in 1a all season facing off...the first meeting for these two teams all season highlights and scores next week on the endzone we're going to take a quick break but when we come back maddie will have a final look at weather.

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