WCBI NEWS AT Ten - 12/14/2020

Show open the covid-19 vaccine the covid-19 vaccine distribution is officially underway in mississippi.

State health leaders were the first to receive the vaccinations this afternoon.

The department of health has been fielding calls for weeks now about when folks can start getting the vaccine.

A lot of timeline moving forward depends on the size and timing of the next shipments of vaccines.

But as courtney ann jackson explains, today was the first step in getting things started.

State health officer dr. thomas dobbs the first person in the state of mississippi to receive the pfizer covid-19 vaccine.

"felt like a butterfly.

A little bit of a sting...not bad."

"to be honest, we know and dr. byers and i and jim expect that maybe we'll have some swelling after the shot and maybe even have some achiness tomorrow.

But that's so much worth it.

We know how deadly, devastating and deadly coronavirus has been for the state of mississippi."

Five of the state's hospitals- including ummc- have cold storage options that allowed for direct shipments of the vaccine.

"we do have several facilities within the state that if not receiving the vaccine today will be receiving it tomorrow or wednesday."

Ummc will start administering the vaccines to employees beginning wednesday but it will not be required.

Dr. will not be required.

Dr. thomas dobbs says they've mostly left decisions of which specific workers would get the vaccines up to the individual hospitals but suggest priority all of today's details surround that first allotment from pfizer.

But the state is expecting to receive the moderna vaccines as early as next week.

Initially, we could receive as much as 50,000 doses of that.

Also, keep in mind both the pfizer and moderna vaccine require two doses each.

Mississippi's covid- 19 death toll tops 42 hundred.

The state department of health is reporting one thousand 648 new cases and five deaths today.

There are long- term care facility outbreaks.

The hospitalization rate is nine point five percent in the state.

However, mississippi's rolling seven-day average is more than 21 hundred new cases.

In our area, lee county has the most new cases today with 113.

Lowndes county has 76.

Pontotoc has 45, union and webster counties are reporting 43 cases each.

Monroe has 30 and oktibbeha has 29.

Baptist memorial hospital golden triangle is among the facilities making special preparations to store the new pfizer vaccine.

Wcbi news reporter stephen pimpo was at the hospital today for an inside look at that storage process and has the story "so this is like a central hub so we can store several hundred doses of vaccine so can distribute it to clinics and other locations where they will only be able to store it for 5 days."

Baptist memortial hospital golden triangle is ready and standing by for their shipment of pfizer's covid-19 vaccine.

The hospital is set to get 500 doses of the moderna vaccine on december 21st, but it's the pfizer vaccine that requires special preparation.

"there's a lot of training that goes on with our staff to make sure our staff are properly trained to handle something that is stored at ultra low temperatures.

It's something we really haven't done in an inpatient pharmacy setting before."

Baptist director of pharmacy eli hilton says that training includes handling dry ice, using proper personal protective equipment like gloves and goggles and transferring the vaccine into their brand new ultra- low freezer.

Su: once thevaccine is delivered...hospita l staff have about 10 minutes to move them from the you that if you get the vaccine from our facility, it's going to be monitored, stored appropriately, and effective."

In columbus...stephen pimpo...wcbi news... hilton says that while they do not know when that pfizer vaccine will arrive at baptist...they do know that eventually...they'l l have it in large enough quantities to share with other facilities.

First look stinger first look summary: a few more weather makers are on the way over the next week but they won't bring us too many issues.

Our area looks to remain in a zone between winter weather and severe weather.

Seasonably cool air will continue into early next week.

Monday night: clouds & stars.

Lows in the upper 20s.

Northerly winds 2-7 mph.

Intro a proposal by mississippi governor tate reeves to do away with the state income tax will likely be debated during the upcoming legislative session.

Wcbi's allie martin has more on the proposal, along with reaction from key players on both sides of the issue.

Governor tate reeves believes phasing out the individual state income tax for mississippi residents is not only good for taxpayers, but also for economic development.

"i believe eliminating the individual income tax is yet another positive step in removing hurdles to convince both businesses and individuals to move back to mississippi."

Reeves says revenues lost by eliminating the income tax would be made up by an even stronger economy.

Reeves points out that the state is 300 million dollars ahead of revenue projections the first five months of this fiscal year.

The fact of the matter is because we kept our economy open and haven't shut down like so many states in the northeast and far west, we are seeing significant economic growth, revenue growth, and i believe if you were to implement it over a period of time, we wouldn't have to raise anybody's taxes, we could just over time eliminate the individual income tax and it's a win win win for everyone."

While lieutenant governor delbert hosemann says he favors income tax reform, he is not sure that eliminating the state income tax is the way to go.

"i'm not going to stand here and tell you that if you do away with the state income tax, it's a one point nine billion dollar debt, i can't see growth covering one point nine billion, that's probably forty percent of the whole budget for the state, so yeah, we're looking at tax reform, but it has to be incremental, reasonable, and i got to have a teacher pay raise, my kids need to be educated, highway patrol needs to be funded.

" standup bridge tupelo based community development foundation recruits businesses and industries to the area.

Cdf president david rumbarger says eliminating the individual income tax would make mississippi even more attractive to out of state businesses.

"it's about talent recruitment and when you have an advantage like tennessee or florida or texas with no state income tax, you begin to wonder, people make choices with their feet, and they will choose where they live and avocation and jobs they take based on cost of living , we have a low cost of living in mississippi, it would be nice to pair it with a low taxation rate."

Under the governor's proposal, the state income tax would be eliminated by 2030.

In tupelo, allie martin, wcbi news lawmakers will start their 2021 session january fifth in jackson.

Stinger wx open summary: a few more weather makers are on the way over the next summary: a few more weather makers are on the way over the next week but they won't bring us too many issues.

Our area looks to remain in a zone between winter weather and severe weather.

Seasonably cool air will continue into early next week.

Monday night: clouds & stars.

Lows in the upper 20s.

Northerly winds 2-7 mph.

Tuesday: a mix of clouds & sun.

Dry during the daylight hours with rain developing during the evening.

Highs in the low 50s.

Easterly winds 4-10 mph.

Tuesday night: areas of rain.

Lows around 40.

Wednesday: morning rain then turning mostly cloudy.

Highs in the 40s.

Northwesterly winds around 10 mph.

Total rainfall in the 1/4" to 1/2" range.

Wednesday night: partly to mostly cloudy.

Lows in the upper 20s.

Thursday: turning mostly sunny.

Highs in the upper 40s.

Thursday night: clear and cold.

Lows in the mid 20s.

Friday: mostly sunny.

Highs in the 50s.

Weekend: mostly cloudy with rain developing saturday afternoon and evening.

Highs in the 50s.

Mostly cloudy skies continue sunday along with highs in the 50s.

Follow @wcbiweather on summary: a few more weather makers are on the way over the next week but they won't bring us too many issues.

Our area looks to remain in a zone between winter weather and severe weather.

Wcbi news app stinger after the break, we take another look at the holiday blues.

Health talk with baptist is next.

Cash 3 lottery gfx goes here it's the most wonderful time of the year..

But not for everyone.

Tonight on health talk with baptist, how to cope with the holiday blues.

Take a look.

No script tonight we're going talk about sadness around the holidays everyone looking forward to enjoying the holidays for some not be happy at all the holidays may bring order to feelings of sadness loneliness anxiety and depression there many by many reasons for the healing the pressure to fill mary the difference between how we actually fill in what we think we should be feeling can cause guilt and confusion the memories of past holidays we have the mental record of past holidays we may long for the happy holidays we once enjoyed reminders allowed once we lost holidays are a time for reflection and our thoughts often turn to our loved ones who passed away financial hardship if our finances are limited we might fill in the is sufficient and on the outside so i wonder many people are negative impact by the related losses of life seasonal affective disorder said me to this next time with help talk without thisbillboard attached stinger mississippi state with one regular season game remaining this season..

Next in sports mike leach on his offenses progression even though saturday's 24-10 loss dropped mike leach's bunch to 2- 7 on the season... the bulldogs still could possibly make a bowl game... they'll wrap up the season saturday for one final regular season contest against missouri... points wise it seemed the bulldogs were back in their offensive woes... but leach says they've played hard recently and are trending in the right direction as a young team... 00-05 leach says: we've played really hard and during varying degrees some teams have more people that can participate more than other but we played hard till the end of the last three or four.

Any times you play young guys its tough for the present and better for the future and it's a roller coaster.

The game is on sec network alternate channel... ole miss football will finally return to the gridiron this saturay when the rebels take on ed orgeron and the lsu tigers... his team coming off a massive upset win over the florida gators... it will have been three weeks since lane kiffin's club played in a game... their last matchup was against state in the egg bowl... their game against a&m was cancelled due to covid-19... all signs point towars this weekend's game in baton rouge being played... and lane says there are good and bad components that come with this amount of time off... 00-05 kiffin says: it's not ideal but we'll have fresh legs that part is good.

We don't have everyone yet because of the covid guys trickling back in.

Some were abck today and some will come back tomorrow.

We have a chance to finish the season with a winning record in all sec games which will be exciting for our first year especially considering the fact that we let a couple slip away that we should've won.

Kickoff is at 230 saturday state hosting troy... second quarter madison hayes with an easy layup .... little later aliyah matharu knocks it down from the corner..

State up 21... three minutes to go matharu would hit another three to put state up 28... hit another three to put state up 28... half wining down..

Rickea jackson hits one... state had 13 threes in the first half... sidney cooks had 20 at the break and state goes on to win..

Central arkansas coach anthony boone returning to oxford to take on his alma matter 1st half.....luis rodriguez picking up where he left off saturday....knocks down the triple!

9- 4 ole miss later....devontae shuler passes it down low to romello white...post up and the hook shot is good.....ole miss up 12 white misses.....rodriguez is there for the board....passes to shuler who knocks down the 8 footer adding to the lead austin crowley on the baseline drive.....finds a wide open shuler in the corner!!

3 ball is cash!!

Shuler has 14 points at halftime and ole miss goes onto get the win... while the bulldogs fell to dayton saturday in a double overtime thriller... ben howland has been beyond pleased with the progression of sophomore guard iverson molinar from year one to year two... he says the only player hes seen make that big of a leap in that span... russell westbrook going back to his u-c-l-a days..

He's put up 18 points... 4 rebounds and 4 assists per game this year... that type of jump doesn't happen with luck... the guard has been working incredibly hard to continue on his road to becoming a pro hooper... "i was training three times a day.

I actually went back to san diego and worked out with my uncle.

He played 13 years professionally overseas so he knows what i had to do to become one of the best players here in the sec.

I'm still working on that.

That's one of my goals.

I'm still working on becoming the best i can be."

In the nba, a couple former bulldogs getting their first taste of the league with preseason basketball underway.

Columbus native robert woodard gets his first professional bucket for the sacramento kings with a reverse baseline layup..

Also, we've seen this before!

Reggie perry!

Making an and 1 layup for the brooklyn nets!

Perry finished the game with 5 points and 7 rebounds.

Woodard had 4 points and 3 rebounds as well!