MONDAY UPDATES: Missouri DHSS adds 58 coronavirus related deaths after analyzing death certificates

Missouri DHSS has added 58 COVID-19 related deaths after state’s disease surveillance system analyzed several death certificates.

Officails say the deaths will be captured and reported publicly through the dashboard Tuesday morning.

Of the 58 deaths:

• one occurred in December
• six in January
• 20 in February
• 31 in March

Officials at DHSS report the weekly activity typically causes a sharp increase in the deaths added to Missouri’s total the following day. DHSS is now regularly analyzing death certificates on Mondays.

Officials say the state does not track probable or pending deaths.

Boone County nearing 30 percent of residents to receive at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine

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

There are currently 60 active cases in the county.

The county now has a reported total number of COVID-19 cases of 17,886.

The county has reported the total number of cases removed from isolation is 17,741.

The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services dashboard has reported the latest five-day average as 15.

The dashboard is reporting the positivity rate of 11.7% for March 12 through March 18. The positivity rate for March 19 through last Thursday is 6.9%.

The county continues to trend down as there have been 60 straight days of single or double-digit case increases.

The health department is reporting the total number of hospitalizations in Boone County is 17.

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

The dashboard is reporting two COVID-19 patients in the ICU and no patients 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 53,067 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 29.4%.

Saline County has the second-highest first vaccination rate in Mid-Missouri with 26.6%. Cole County is third with 25.3%.

Federal program to bring 168,000 vaccine doses to St. Louis

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson announced a partnership with FEMA to open a vaccination site in St. Louis.

Parson said the eight-week-long event will make 3,000 vaccine doses available daily for a total of 168,000 at the conclusion of the program.

The governor said in a news release that the event starts on April 7 and be held at the Dome at America's Center in downtown St. Louis. The site was picked because of its proximity to a large population of people at high risk of disease from COVID-19 and their limited access to health care, the release said.

The site will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. everyday throughout the program.

The doses being provided at the event will be in addition to the approximately 200,000 doses the state receives from the federal government weekly, the release said.

Nearly 25% of Missourians initiate vaccination

As of Monday's COVID-19 dashboard update, nearly one in four Missourians has started the coronavirus vaccination process.

Health officials said more than 1.5 million state residents -- about 24.5% of the state population -- have received a dose of a two-shot vaccine or the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The dashboard said 244,000 vaccine doses were given out over the week ending on Friday. State officials have administered more than 2.3 million vaccine shots since vaccines became federally approved.

Health department data included that 877,000 Missourians have completed vaccination.

On Monday, Phase 2 of Missouri's COVID-19 vaccination phase opened up for nearly 900,000 state residents deemed essential for the state's economic recovery. The remaining state residents will become vaccine eligible on April 9.

The health department has confirmed 488,648 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic started -- 193 more since Sunday.

Health officials have not reported any new deaths in the last 24 hours -- 8,440 state residents have died from the pandemic since it started.

More than 87,119 probable COVID-19 cases have been reported through antigen testing. Department officials reported 142 more cases from the day before.

Missouri's seven-day COVID-19 positivity rate was reported at 4.2% on Monday. The rate has not been reported above 4.4% during March, the dashboard said.