The Mississippi State Department of Health late Wednesday afternoon reported two more deaths from the coronavirus, bringing the state's total to five.

The newest cases were a Wilkinson County male 85-90 years old with underlying conditions who died while hospitalized and a Tunica County female 75-80 who died in a long-term care facility.

The state also reported its second and third deaths Wednesday.

A Webster County man was between 65-70 years old and had underlying health conditions. He died while hospitalized, health department officials said in a news release. And another male 60-65 years old from Holmes County with underlying health conditions also died while hospitalized.

“We knew that more deaths would be inevitable, just as we expect numerous new cases. It is a very sad update to report, regardless,” said MSDH State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs. “Please do your part by practicing all preventive measures. It is vitally important that we all do what we can right now to help slow the spread of this virus.”

As the coronavirus outbreak continues in Mississippi, the number of cases rose from Tuesday's report by 57 to 377 in 61 of the state's 82 counties as of Wednesday morning.

Three counties reported their first cases of coronavirus since the state's first case was reported March 11 in Forrest County. The state has reported two deaths, The first occurred in Hancock County a week after the state's first case was announced.

The newest counties to report coronavirus cases are Amite, Calhoun and Prentiss.

The Health Department updates the number of cases once a day. Results are from testing done by the department and private laboratories, but the number of tests reported are ones conducted only by the MSDH Public Health Laboratory.

As of Wednesday, MSDH has tested 1,943. The number of tests conducted by private labs is not available.

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In Louisiana, there had been 1,795 cases with 65 deaths reported as of Wednesday afternoon. Tennessee is reporting 667 cases with two deaths. Neither Arkansas, with 236 cases, nor Alabama, with 242 case, have reported any deaths from coronavirus.

The U.S. had 55,225 cases and 802 deaths as of Wednesday morning. The U.S. trailed only Italy and China in reported infections. Confirmed cases, however, are a function of testing.

Worldwide cases of confirmed coronavirus were at 435,006 as of Wednesday morning and there were 19,625 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University data dashboard.

Contact Lici Beveridge at 601-584-3104 or lbeveridge@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @licibev or Facebook at facebook.com/licibeveridge.