TUESDAY UPDATES: MU Health: COVID-19 vaccine appointments available Thursday thru Saturday
If you want to get a coronavirus vaccine, MU Health Care reports there are many COVID-19 vaccine appointment slots available to all Missouri adults Thursday through Saturday.
Anyone interested in receiving a vaccine can visit muhealth.org/covid19-vaccine-scheduling to schedule an appointment. Patients younger than 18 will need a signed parental consent.
The first-dose appointment slots are available between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. April 15, 16 and 17. The second dose will be scheduled 21 days later.
Those who need help scheduling an appointment can call our COVID-19 vaccine call center at 573-771-CARE (2273). The call center is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Cole County reports two coronavirus related deaths after death certificate review
The Cole County Health Department reported two coronavirus related deaths after the state of Missouri's weekly death certificate review.
The county has a reported 119 coronavirus related deaths since the pandemic started.
The health department has updated their daily dashboard with six new COVID-19 related cases.
Cole County has the second-highest number of coronavirus cases in mid-Missouri with 8,057.
Boone County reports 24.8% of residents have received their final dose of coronavirus vaccine
The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services is reporting nine new COVID-19 cases.
There are currently 105 active cases in the county.
The county now has a reported total number of COVID-19 cases of 18,071.
The county has reported the total number of cases removed from isolation is 17,881, a 15 case increase from Monday.
The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services dashboard has reported the latest five-day average as 11.
The dashboard is reporting the positivity rate April 2 through last Thursday is 17.2%.
The county continues to trend down as there have been 75 straight days of single or double-digit case increases.
The health department is reporting the total number of hospitalizations in Boone County is 11.
The number of Boone County residents hospitalized is reported to be four.
The dashboard is reporting one COVID-19 patient 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 69,282 residents have received their first dose in Boone County and 44,716 Boone County residents have completed their vaccine doses.
Boone County has the largest percentage of people in Mid-Missouri that have received at least one dose of the vaccine with 38.4%. Boone County has a reported 24.8% of residents that have completed their coronavirus vaccine doses.
Cole County has the second-highest first vaccination rate in Mid-Missouri with 30.2%. Saline County is third with 30%.
Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services director extends health order
Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services has extended the public coronavirus health orders issued by Director Stephanie Browning, citing the five-day rolling average of new cases increasing over 300% and the first case of U.K. coronavirus variant being found in Boone County.
Officials report the rolling five-day average increase is largely due to the 18 to 24-year-old population. That population is 19% of Boone County yet they represented 44.7% of new cases the week of April 4, making it the highest percentage of new cases in this age group since the week of Sept. 7, according to a health department news release.
The five-day average of new daily cases hit five on March 31 but rose to 20 last week. It fell to 11 on Monday, according to the county's COVID-19 dashboard.
Active cases at the University of Missouri increased by 22 between Tuesday and Friday last week, according to numbers published by MU. The number of active cases on campus was 31 as of Monday.
"While we’ve made great progress on vaccinating our community, only a quarter of our population in Boone County has full protection," Browning said. "Extending the Orders gives more of our community the opportunity to be fully protected against the virus to help us move forward."
The newest health orders are set to expire at 11:59 a.m. May 12. The orders include a requirement that people wear masks in public places where social distancing isn't possible. They also require restaurants and bars to maintain social distancing.
The orders do not include capacity limits on public events -- a restriction that had been in health orders for most of the pandemic but was recently eliminated.
State health department reports 100+ new pandemic-related deaths
On Tuesday, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported 107 new coronavirus-related deaths on the COVID-19 dashboard.
Health department spokeswoman Lisa Cox said the deaths come from the weekly check of death certificates.
The state's total of pandemic-related deaths was reported at 8,622 on Tuesday. Health officials had not reported any new deaths since Saturday.
Every week, the state health department reviews death certificates and adds any increases to the dashboard. It wasn't immediately clear when the people died.
The department reported 429 new COVID-19 cases through PCR testing bringing the pandemic total up to 494,157. More than 90,000 probable cases through antigen testing have also been reported in the state.
Recently, new cases have seen a bump -- daily case totals had fallen to the 100-200 range in March and early April. The daily average increase for the week ending on Saturday was 334, according to the dashboard.
The state's seven-day COVID-19 positivity rate was reported at 4.6% on Tuesday.
The dashboard said 3.15 million coronavirus vaccine doses have been administered in the state. Data included that more than 1.9 million residents have initiated vaccination -- almost a third of the state population.
