TUESDAY UPDATES: Boone County reports two new COVID-19 cases
UPDATE 4:55 P.M.: Boone County reported two more cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the total to 153 and continuing recent growth in cases.
Columbia/Boone County health officials have reported 30 new COVID-19 cases since last Tuesday. The recent growth in cases follows a long period of little to no new case reports and has vaulted Boone County into the top 10 counties for rate of case growth over the last week.
The county reports 27 percent of its total cases are in black residents -- a number that has been growing since the start of the pandemic. Black residents of Boone County make up 8.8 percent of the population.
Health officials said 27 of the county's 153 cases were active as of Tuesday afternoon. The number of active cases has dropped five since Monday.
UPDATE 3:35 P.M.: Lincoln University is planning for in-person classes this fall.
The university said in a news release Tuesday that classes will begin Aug. 24. Residence halls will also be open and the university will release details on precautions related to COVID-19 at a later date, the release said.
The university ended in-person classes March 23 and pushed spring graduation back to Aug. 1 as COVID-19 cases continued to grow.
New student orientation will take place online throughout the summer.
ORIGINAL: The state reported 248 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday.
The increase was the highest single-day total since May 4, when 368 new cases were reported. Tuesday's increase brought the number of cases in Missouri since the pandemic began to 13,575.
Deaths increased by eight on Monday. All but 20 of the state's 783 deaths are in people age 50 and older.
State officials have repeatedly cautioned that case numbers would go up as Missouri ramped up its number of daily tests. A statewide stay-at-home order was lifted a little more than a month ago.
Three Mid-Missouri counties continued to appear near the top in case growth statewide -- Boone, Audrain and Callaway. Those counties rank fifth, sixth and seventh in statewide case growth over the last seven days, according to the state's COVID-19 information hub.
St. Louis County continues to lead the state in number of cases with nearly 4,900. The city of St. Louis is the next-closest political jurisdiction with about 1,800 cases.
The state reports it has tested more than 205,000 people for the live coronavirus.
The Missouri Hospital Association reported 661 COVID-19 patients hospitalized statewide Monday, well below the 900-plus peak. Hospitals had nearly 2,300 available ventilators.
Tuesday numbers had not been posted.
