THURSDAY UPDATES: Boone County reports triple-digit active cases for first time since Monday
A correction was made to the story about how many days it has been since Boone County has reported triple-digit active cases.
Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services is reporting 19 new COVID-19 cases and 107 active cases. The number of active cases went into triple-digits for the first time since Monday after dropping to two digits since March 1.
The county now has a reported total number of COVID-19 cases of 17,635.
The county has reported the total number of cases removed from isolation is 17,446.
Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services dashboard has reported the latest five-day average as 25.
The dashboard is reporting the positivity rate of 10% for the week of Feb. 26 through last Thursday.
The county continues to trend down as there have been 43 straight days of single or double-digit case increases.
The health department is reporting the total number of hospitalizations in Boone County is 19.
The number of Boone County residents hospitalized is reported to be three.
The dashboard is reporting six COVID-19 patients in the ICU and three patients on ventilators.
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 39,857 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 22.1%.
Howard and Saline County has the second largest with 19.9% of the population have received the first dose of the vaccine. Cole County is fourth largest with 19.6%.
MU Health Care to shut down drive-thru coronavirus testing
MU Health Care said Thursday that it will close its drive-thru coronavirus testing site, citing a steep decline in demand.
The site will shut down after Friday's normal hours of operation.
The number of tests performed at the testing site at Mizzou North has dropped from more than 3,000 per week in August to fewer than 700 for the first week of March, MU Health said in a news release.
MU Health says anyone needing a test after Friday should contact their doctor. People who don't have a primary care doctor should visit an urgent care clinic, according to the news release.
Test volume has declined along with the rate of new coronavirus cases in Boone County since January. The five-day average of daily cases, 137 on Jan. 9, dropped to 22 on Wednesday, according to the county health department's coronavirus hub.
Tests reached their highest daily level in November, topping out at nearly 900. On Monday, 104 county residents had tests performed.
Boone Hospital Center and SSM St. Mary's Hospital each said this week that their testing sites will also close after Friday.
MU to provide coronavirus supply kits
The University of Missouri will provide safety supplies to all students, staff and faculty on campus as the coronavirus pandemic continues.
The supply kits include three masks, a bottle of hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes, MU leaders said in an email to campus. Students can pick up the free kits at the bookstore starting Monday.
MU said it is also relaxing its limit on event attendance to come in line with the current Boone County health order. Up to 50 people will now be allowed at university events instead of 20. Events with a crowd of more than 50 still acquire advance approval.
MU officials touted lower rates of new cases in the email but said more than half of the university community remains unvaccinated because of lack of eligibility.
The university reported six active student cases Wednesday. The campus had nearly 700 active cases in early September.
State positivity rate sees biggest increase in months, rate remains low
Missouri's COVID-19 positivity rate saw its biggest jump in months on Thursday.
With the rate on the decline for months the state positivity was still low even with the increase.
In the most recent health department data available, the coronavirus dashboard said Missouri's seven-day COVID-19 positivity rate was reported at 4.5%. The rate is 0.3% higher than the day before.
Since early January, decreases in new COVID-19 cases and testing has caused the rate to plummet. Before Thursday, the largest increase since Jan. 4 had been 0.1.
Health officials said on the dashboard 12% of the state's PCR tests have come back positive. As of Thursday, more than 4.6 million tests have been administered in the state with 532,000 coming back positive over the course of the pandemic.
The department 530 new COVID-19 cases through PCR testing in Thursday's dashboard update. Three more deaths were also reported bringing the state's pandemic total to 8,300.
Statewide vaccinations increased in the last day. The dashboard said 1.07 million Missourians have initiated vaccination, 17.5% of the state population. Data included that more than 1.6 million total vaccine doses have been administered in the state.
