The 32-bed Samaritan’s Purse field hospital opening Wednesday joins a 20-bed field hospital staffed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that opened at UMMC Friday. The field hospitals are a resource for the Medical Center and the state’s other hospitals facing a deluge of COVID-19 hospitalizations.

People from across Mississippi are descending on UMMC’s Adult Emergency Department in desperate need of the higher level of care offered by the state’s sole academic medical center. But when all beds are full and exhausted front-line staff are overwhelmed by the record number of COVID-19 patients coming in the door, its disaster mode.

The University of Mississippi Medical Center is now accepting appointments for a monoclonal antibody (MAB) infusion clinic for COVID-19 patients, which opens Tuesday in the field hospital located in Parking Garage B, which is across from the adult and children’s emergency rooms.

Children’s of Mississippi is seeing increasing numbers of otherwise healthy children who are seriously ill with COVID-19, but other cases at the state’s only children’s hospital, anything from routine illnesses and injuries to rare conditions, aren’t decreasing.

The skyrocketing number of COVID-19 cases and soaring hospitalizations around the state put increased pressure on the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s resources in fighting the effects of the virus’ spread. In classes and clinics, hospital rooms and hallways, here are scenes from the pandemic’s surge over the past week.

Those who learn, teach and lead among the Medical Center’s rollcall of schools are, of course, also up against the pandemic’s growing list of deficits and demands – in the clinic and the classroom. At UMMC, COVID-19 has already had a profound impact on education, most certainly for all time.

UMMC researchers have been studying COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. With the Delta variant dominant in Mississippi, scientists are continuing their work and starting new projects.

Several interesting events are scheduled for the upcoming week at the Medical Center.

Medical Center leadership is proud to acknowledge those employees who will celebrate service anniversaries during the week of Aug. 2-8.