Federal report shows Missouri drops to moderate transmission, identifies concerning variants

For the first time this year, the State Profile Report for Missouri categorized the state's community transmission of COVID-19 as "moderate," after spending several months at the "substantial transmission level."

Read the full State Profile Report below.

This change comes with another drop in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths across the state. According to the report, Missouri saw a 6% drop in new cases and a more than 20% drop in both new hospitalizations and deaths.

The report also shows 61 counties in Missouri are reporting in the yellow zone, which is the "moderate transmission level," and 33 are still in the orange zone, or the "substantial transmission level." Out of those, only three Mid-Missouri counties in the orange zone, including Macon, Cooper, and Chariton.

Compared to the prior week, Missouri has one less county with high transmission levels. The report shows just 10 counties are now sitting in the red zone.

Federal officials have now released information about the variants that have been identified in Missouri. Out of all the cases of COVID-19 in the state, 71.7% are the UK variant, 0.7% are the South African variant, 4.4% are the Brazil variant, and 3.2% of cases are the variant first identified in California.

All of this comes as Missourians continue to get vaccinated. The state's vaccine dashboard shows 41.1% of the population in Missouri have initiated vaccination, and 34% have completed vaccination.