Jefferson City mayor wants Cole County residents to get vaccinated amidst state hot spot advisory

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Jefferson City Mayor Carrie Tergin is pleading for Cole County residents to get vaccinated after the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) listed Cole and Osage Counties as coronavirus hot spots in a new advisory.

"I just can't tell the community enough how important it is to keep distance between others, if you're sick, stay home and get your vaccines," Tergin said.

The department reports COVID-19 cases in the past two weeks have increased to 363 in Cole and 49 in Osage.

Officials with DHSS report hospitals in the region are seeing resource strain from dramatically increased numbers of COVID-19 patients and hospitalizations with an average of 178+ people hospitalized in the region in the last seven days. As a result, several hospitals in the region are at or near capacity. Continued disease spread into mid-Missouri is expected.

"We know the cases are increasing and it's up to us if we want to get those numbers going in the other direction is we've got to do all of those things and continue to take those precautions in a very strong manner," Tergin said.

The Cole County Health Department reported 65 new coronavirus cases Friday.

According to the dashboard update, there have been 58 new cases in the county, bringing the total to 9,219 resident cases and seven new cases in long-term care facilities bringing the total to 280 cases. That brings a total of 9,499 total cases in the county.

"I know it just sounds so simple and basic and people may want to tune it out or not listen anymore to it, and move on without it but those things are what are going to get us moving forward," Tergin said.

According to the health department, there have been 202 coronavirus cases and 40 of the cases reported were breakthrough infections.

The county has reported 126 coronavirus-related deaths since the pandemic started.

Cole County ranks seventh in the state for counties with the most coronavirus cases per capita in the past week. Cases are up 2.9% on the week. The county has an 18.4% positive test rate, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

The Missouri coronavirus vaccine dashboard reports about 39% of the county's population have been fully vaccinated.

Watch ABC 17 News tonight at 10 for a live report.