WCBI NEWS AT TEN - 12/01/2020

Show open for the 7th straight day, mississippi sees more than a thousand new covid-19 cases.

The state department of health is reporting 1,141 new cases today and 29 deaths.

In our area, lee county has the most new cases with 58.

Lafayette county has 33.

Lowndes is reporting 32.

And there are 28 new cases in monroe county.

There are 1,008 covid-19 patients being treated in hospitals across the state.

238 are in icu.

Governor tate reeves making it clear today that covid-19 is bad in mississippi just as it is across the country.

But he doesn't think his decision making is in conflict with those calling for a statewide mask mandate.

At the end of the day, he says they have the same goal of wanting the most mississippians possible to mask up.

Courtney ann jackson has the latest from today's briefing.

If you look at this map from mema, you'll see the large majority of the state has some form of a mask mandate-whether it be an order from the governor or local leaders.

"i just don't believe that if you put a policy like a mask mandate statewide in place and never replace it that it has the same impact as if you add based upon specific numbers and i think there's state, after state, after state that have proven that," said governor tate reeves.

Dr. thomas dobbs issuing a call to action.

He says he's heard this kind of messaging from hospitals and healthcare providers but believes it needs to go beyond that.

"what i'm not seeing is a groundswell of messaging from all leaders," noted dobbs on a separate mississippi department of nowhere in mississippi and nowhere in louisiana."

Dr. dobbs says that will impact more than just covid-care but also things like heart attacks and car wrecks.

He says it will likely back up the ers.

But on a slightly more positive note, while patients with confirmed covid have broken the state's previous record, there has been a lower demand for icu beds compared to earlier this year.

First look stinger first look summary: we're now into december, a winter month, and conditions will be more winter-like for sure over the next week.

Highs will be in the 40s and 50s while overnight lows look to be mainly in the 30s and 20s.

Areas of showers are possible thursday through friday morning.

Dry weather returns for the weekend and early chance of showers.

Highs in the low 50s.

The lack of critical care beds at major hospitals around the state is putting smaller hospitals without their own icu facilities in uncharted waters.

Wcbi reporter stephen pimpo spoke with one today and has more on the story.

"icu bed utilization is up, hospital bed utilization is up state-wide.

We're setting records everyday and it's the wrong kind of records we're setting right now."

The record number of covid-19 hospitalizations in mississippi and the shrinking number of icu beds means some patients won't be transferred to a higher level of care.

"this influx of covid patients state-wide and even in winston county is just getting worse and worse and i don't when we're going to have anything or get any relief down the road."

Winston medical center is one of many rural hospitals in mississippi that operates without an icu.

Their usual method of relying on larger facilities and mississippi med-com to find critical care beds has become increasingly difficult with 12 "we just have to do what we can do here.

That's it.

That's all we can do."

Off top this is how city council meetings have looked for the past few months.

But this month all that changes in columbus.

Today mayor robert smith says the two regularly scheduled december city council meetings will be held virtually.

Council members and city staff members will not attend in-person due to covid-19 precautions.

The sessions will also be closed to the public and the media.

The council will continue to broadcast live on facebook one of the meetings is going on now.

The other is scheduled for december 15th.

The frigid temperatures the past few nights have people pulling out extra heat sources -- like space heaters.

And firefighters say some of them can be dangerous.

Space heaters can warm up your room, but they can be dangerous if they're not used properly.

The fire inspector at the starkville fire department says it's not unusual for them to respond to fires started by space heaters during cold weather.

He says one of the most critical mistakes people make is using extension cords for power.

Always plug it directly into the outlet.

Don't use a surge protector; just straight into an outlet.

And only use one appliance per that outlet.

You know, so don't put two space heaters on that one outlet.

On space heaters - the biggest thing is we need to keep them three feet from anything that's combustible, like the bedroom the bed, the blankets.

You need to cut them off before you go to bed.

If you leave the room you need to cut them off.

Make sure no fire gets started by them.

Wade also says space heaters are not designed to warm large areas.

The city of tupelo recognizes the new "miss usa" with a special proclamation.

Tupelo mayor jason shelton proclaimed december first as "asya branch day" in the all america city.

Asya is a former miss tupelo, and last month, she was crowned "miss usa" during the competition held at graceland.

The 22 year old says she is honored to have a day named after her in tupelo.

"it means a lot, i represented tupelo in the past and i just feel truly honored and really grateful to have support and people in my corner, even though this isnt my official hometown, but i'm loved as if it is."

Asya branch will compete in the miss universe pageant sometime in 2021.

Voters in amory will decide the fate of a tourism tax, one week from today.

Wcbi's allie martin tells us what the extra revenue would fund in this report from amory.

Amory's tourism tax senate bill was approved in 2014 and it allows for a two percent tax on gross sales of restaurants, and hotels and motels.

Revenues can only be used to promote tourism and for the parks and recreation department.

"we feel like it is something that will be very beneficial to our facilities moving forward, our programming moving forward, our events moving forward."

Revenue from the tax would not go into the general fund, but into a special fund.

Mayor brad blalock says the tourism tax would put amory on a level playing field with nearby cities that already have it.

"so when our residents go to these neighboring communities and they eat out they are actually supporting parks and recreation in that community and what we're asking is, not only our residents,, but those who come in and use those facilities currently, throughout county or state, when they come eat with us, or absentee voting is underway through saturday at the city clerk's office at amory city hall.

Stinger wx open summary: we're now into december, a winter month, and conditions will be more winter-like for sure over the next week.

Highs will be in the 40s and 50s while overnight lows look to be summary: we're now december, a winter month, and conditions will be more winter-like for sure over the next week.

Highs will be in the 40s and 50s while overnight lows look to be mainly in the 30s and 20s.

Areas of showers are possible thursday through friday morning.

Dry weather returns for the weekend and early next week.

Tuesday night: clear with another hard freeze.

Lows in the mid 20s.

Calm wind.

Wednesday: mostly sunny in the morning with increasing clouds in the afternoon.

Highs in the low to mid 50s.

Winds ese 5- 10 mph.

Wednesday night: mostly cloudy.

Lows in the mid 30s.

Thursday: cloudy with a 40-50% chance of showers.

Highs in the low 50s.

Thursday night: areas of showers.

Milder lows in the 40s.

Friday: a 30% chance of showers during the morning.

Mostly cloudy.

Highs in the upper 40s to around 50.

Friday night: partly cloudy.

Lows in the mid to low 30s.

Weekend: mostly sunny to partly cloudy.

Highs in the 50s, lows in the wx open summary: we're now into december, a winter month, and conditions will be more winter-like for sure over the next week.

Highs will be in the 40s and 50s while overnight lows look to be mainly in the 30s and 20s.

Areas of showers are possible thursday through friday morning.

Dry weather returns for the weekend and early next week.

Tuesday night: clear with another hard stinger a new way to heal broken bones... that story coming after the break.

Stay with us.

Cash 3 lottery gfx goes here british researchers say they've found a new way to heal broken bones....with a type of bandage that could speed up the healing process.

Cbs' ian lee reports from london.

Nats up...lab scientists at this lab in england are trying to revolutionize how bones heal.

Nat pop - "there was a lot of trial and error, a lot of testing.."

The team at king's college london created a futuristic bandage made from a new bio-material that heals broken bones when implanted onto the site of the fracture.

We can apply them on the really large bone fracture and we see that they promote bone repair.

The bandage is coated in a protein that enhances the bone's natural ability to repair...which speeds up the recovery process.

Scientists found the bandage works even quicker when loaded up with a 3d collagen gel containing bone head coach ben howland got his 500th career win in monday's 68-51 win over texas state..the bulldogs were able to bounce back after a few losses to open the season against clemson and liberty..

It was the dj stewart show at the hump.... he led the bulldogs with 23 points... shooting 9 for 14 from the field.... and five for six from beyond the arc... stewart has delivered for howland's team in the first three games of the year putting up 18 points per game... and the head man thinks he's just scratching the surface of his ceiling 00-05 howland says: he's a really good player a great offensive player really intelligent.

Takes pride in being a good passer.

He's our best perimeter defender him and abdul are our best defenders.

His ceiling is like woodard, weatherspoon and perry where he will have a chance to get drafted.

The sixth ranked state women's basketball team started off it's season 1-0 after defeating jackson state sunday... they'll return to action wednesday night at the hump when they host new orleans... it was a good start to the nikki mccray penson era... despite multiple schedule changes to start the year due to covid-19... the jackson state matchup was last minute and their southern miss game... originally scheduled for the 12th.... was cancelled due to covid-19 issues on the golden eagles side..

Despite their ability to overcome the adversity... mccray penson wants to see some improvement... mccray penson says: the fluidity of what i want isnt there yet.

We need to rely on the second effort things like rebounds defense and extra possessions.

Those intangibile things to get us over the hump.

Until we're able to get ourt offensive execution to where it needs to be.

It's been a challenge but the foundation of energy and competitive spirit is what you need to hang your hat on right now.

Don't look now but the ole miss rebels have won three straight... lane kiffen's crew now sits at 4-4 on the season following wins over vanderbilt... south carolina and mississippi state... after the south carolina game kiffin didn't mince words when talking about his defense... the rebels gave up over 300 yards on the ground... afterwards he said this isn't little league... he was much more pleased following the teams egg bowl win with how the defense performed this time around... kiffin says: we played a lot better obvuiously.

A completely different team that doesn't run the ball compared to one that had 350 rushigng yards.

A different challenge but some big stops in some big times during the gam the game this weekend marks the end of the high school football season.

In class 4a, the louisville wildcats won't be playing under the friday night lights but instead the saturday morning lights.

Take vo at 11 a-m saturday, the 12-1 powercats face off against 10-3 poplarville for the 4a title.

This game is a rematch of the 2018 state championship that louisville won 25- 20 over the hornets.

Head coach tyrone shorter says the key to their season has been the defense.....those guys will have to have another great game for them to bring the gold ball home.

"they really good at what they do.

That system that they run is a system that you don't see much of.

A lot of people don't run it.

It's hard to simulate it at practice.

We go to play sound football and smart football.

We can't let our speed hurt us because in this type of game against this team, our speed can hurt us.

We'll have to slow it down a little bit.

It's going to be a challenge to slow these guys down because we have to play assignment football because of the offense that they run."

???take gfx???

This week's lineman of the week honors are going to the oxford chargers... it's been a heck of a season for them... we'll hear from chris cutcliffe later this week on wcbi becau8se they'll be taking on oak grove in a rematch of the 2019 6a state title game this weekend in jackson... last year they outscored the warriors 28 nothing in the second half to get the win..

This year they are undefeated and coming off a 31-27 victory over clinton in a game that went down to the wire... congrats to the chargers and they're our lineman of the week...