SATURDAY UPDATES: Five new COVID-19 related death reported in Missouri

Missouri reported 5 new deaths because of COVID-19 on Saturday, bringing the total number to 8,515 throughout the pandemic.

The Department of Health and Senior Services recorded 426 new cases of the virus in the state Saturday. There have now been 493,249 reported cases in Missouri.

The states sayd 823 people are in the hospital with COVID-19, 116 of who are in the ICU. 80 people are reported to be using ventilators.

The state's positivity rate stayed steady at 4.7% after rising slightly late this week.

In the state's fight against COVID-19, almost 3 million doses have been administered in the Show-Me State, hitting 2,990,969 doses administered on Saturday.

That means 1,864,206 people have initiated the vaccine process, which is about 30.4% of the population.

Of those, 1,211,045 have completed the vaccination process, which is about 19.7% of the population.