FRIDAY UPDATES: Columbia Public Schools Foundation donates 100,000 child-size masks for students

Columbia Public Schools Foundation donated 100,000 child-sized disposable masks for students at Columbia Public Schools.

"The foundation is pround to be able to provide disposable masks to CPS students, particularly as they return to in-person learning five days a week in April," said CPSF Board of Director President Cindy Mustard.

The donation cost the foundation $14,000.

Boone County reports positivity rate for last seven days drops below 10%

The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services is reporting 14 new COVID-19 cases.

There are currently 74 active cases in the county, a decrease of 10 from Thursday.

The county now has a reported total number of COVID-19 cases of 17,871.

The county has reported the total number of cases removed from isolation is 17,712, a 24 case increase from Thursday.

The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services dashboard has reported the latest five-day average as 19.

The dashboard is reporting the positivity rate of 11.8% for March 12 through March 18. The positivity rate for March 19 through last Thursday is 7.4%.

The county continues to trend down as there have been 57 straight days of single or double-digit case increases.

The health department is reporting the total number of hospitalizations in Boone County is 20.

The number of Boone County residents hospitalized is reported to be four.

The dashboard is reporting four COVID-19 patients in the ICU and one patient on a ventilator.

The hospital status remains in 'Green' status. 'Green' status is when hospitals are operating within licensed bed capacity; accepting patient transfers from referring hospitals within standard care operating procedures.

The State of Missouri coronavirus vaccine dashboard is reporting that 52,016 residents have received their first dose in Boone County.

The county has the largest percentage of people in Mid-Missouri that have received at least one dose of the vaccine with 28.8%.

Cole County has the second-highest first vaccination rate in Mid-Missouri with 24.8%. Saline County is third with 24.7%.

More than 60% of Missouri's elderly residents initiate vaccination

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services COVID-19 dashboard said 63% of the state's elderly population has initiated coronavirus vaccination.

The dashboard updated on Friday morning said the 75-84 age range was leading the way with 66.4% of those residents receiving at least one dose of a two-shot vaccine or the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine.

Nearly 62% of residents 65-74 years old and 61% of residents 85+ have also initiated vaccination, the dashboard said.

Until recently, the 75-84 group was lagging behind in vaccination. The health department said in a release on Thursday that an analysis of the group showed an increase in vaccination.

In the same release, the health department said it updated census data to reflect estimates from 2019. Officials said the dashboard initially used national demographic averages which did not accurately fit Missouri.

The release said the state's Asian, American Indian or Alaskan Native and Hispanic populations saw an increase in percent initiating vaccination through the data shift.

Health officials have been working with vaccinators to fix a technical difficulty related to multi-racial vaccination data, the release said. Since vaccination data has been reported on the dashboard, the "multi-racial population" has been much higher than other populations. On Friday, the dashboard said 54.4% of the multi-racial population had initiated vaccination.

More Missourians have been vaccinated in the latest data available. Health officials reported on the dashboard that 1.45 million state residents have initiated vaccination with more than 2.2 million total vaccine doses having been administered.

Residents having completed vaccination increased as well, the dashboard reported 815,000 Missourians have received the J&J vaccine or two doses of the Pfizer- or Moderna-produced vaccines.

The dashboard said Boone County was third in the state for its vaccination rate -- 28.8% as of Friday. Data included that more than 52,000 county residents have received at least one shot of vaccine.

The vaccination rate is expected to go up through the weekend with many vaccine clinics being held across the state. Thousands of St. Louis area residents will have the chance to get vaccinated with mass vaccination events going on Friday and Saturday.

Health officials reported 479 new confirmed COVID-19 cases bringing the pandemic total up to 487,844. Three more virus-related deaths were also reported to bring the state's total to 8,438.

The health department reported 451 more probable COVID-19 brought Missouri's pandemic total to 86,573.

Missouri's COVID-19 positivity rate was reported at 4.1% -- slightly higher from the day before.