Fox News "The Story with Martha McCallum" - Transcript Interview with Tate Reeves

Interview

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Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves joins us now. Governor, thank you for being here tonight.

Looking at what's happening in your state, total positivity rate over 13 percent. But this past week, 28 -- 25.8 percent. Why are you seeing a spike in cases in Mississippi?

REEVES: Well, first of all, thank you for having me on tonight, I really do appreciate it. We certainly saw a significant increase in cases through mid-to-late June and it carried throughout July. We're actually seeing positive movement over the last couple of weeks. We had two weeks ago, we averaged about 1,300 cases per day. Last week were average about 1,050 cases and in the first three days of this week, we've average actually less than 850 cases.

And again, we know that three days does not a trend make but certainly we're seeing positive movement. We think the reason that we're seeing that positive movement is because we have had a mask mandate in 37 of our 82 counties that has been in place. And most importantly, the people of Mississippi are participating. They are actually wearing their masks, they're staying socially distance.

We can always improve but we are seeing positive movement and the total number of cases and stabilization amongst hospitalizations.

SMITH: OK, but states and cities across the country are looking at what's happening in your state because you did decide to send kids back to school. Now you are pausing that and you are delaying the opening for the seventh to 12 graders, you've had several students in your state where schools were reopened test positive. What's the update there and why are you delaying the school openings now?

REEVES: Well, we have 450,000 kids in Mississippi schools and we have delayed the reopening in eight counties which affects approximately 7 percent of all students. And we simply delayed it until August the 17th, which is about two weeks and the reason we did that is because we think we have to take a piecemeal approach.

We understand that those kids that are under the age of 12 are much less likely to be affected significantly by the virus. They are also much less likely to spread the virus. As you get kids that are older in their upper teenage years, they are more like adults in terms of their spread.

And so, the reason we've decided to reopen schools but to look at those eight counties, we have a measure, and it's a very objective measure where if you have more than 200 cases in your county plus you have more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents over a two-week period, and that's the -- that's when we delayed the openings.

SMITH: OK. But with so many, a lot of curiosity obviously at the news conference today and everything about this one county where schools were reopened and you had kids and teachers test positive. Why did that happen?

REEVES: Well, what happened is that many kids in our state, really across the country during their summer months, it's not as if they've been holed up in their house and haven't seen or done -- anybody. And so the reality is that what happened is, that many of these kids when they started back to school early last week came into the schools. They came in and they had the virus.

But the good news about what's going on in Corinth in our state is that they identify those cases, we did contact tracing. And so we actually have 100 students approximately that are quarantined now. You know, those who want to attack everyone, look at that as a negative, I actually look at it as a positive.

The system is working whereby we've identified positive cases, we've contact traced those back and we're trying to protect those kids. There's literally hundreds and hundreds of students in that district that are actually learning.

And so, what we've got to understand is that there are risks to anything that we do. There is risk to opening schools, no doubt. But there's also risk to not opening schools because you've got these young kids, many of whom are lacking nutrition. We've got things in classrooms and that's very important.

SMITH: I know -- I know there's a lot happening. I know that the educators have spoken out, they are concerned about the spread now with those positive cases. It's a lot to take on. We'll continue to watch the progress that your state is able to make. Governor, we appreciate you coming on tonight. Thank you.

REEVES: Well thanks so much for having me.

SMITH: OK. Governor, thanks.

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