THURSDAY UPDATES: Boone County reports 50 new coronavirus cases; 321 active cases
The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services reported 50 new COVID-19 cases from Wednesday.
There are currently 321 active cases in the county, an increase of 8 from Wednesday. The county now has a reported total number of 25,313 COVID-19 cases.
The county reported 24,823 cases removed from isolation, an increase of 42 from Wednesday.
Boone County ranks eighth in the state with the most coronavirus cases in total volume in the past week. Cases are down 15.1% when comparing last week to the prior week. The county has a 6.2% positive test rate, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS).
The health department's hospital status is yellow with 47 COVID-19 patients in Boone County hospitals and 17 of them being Boone County residents. Of those, 14 are in intensive care and eight are on ventilators.
The Missouri coronavirus vaccine dashboard reports that 100,169 residents have received their first dose in Boone County and 90,666 Boone County residents have completed their vaccine doses.
Boone County has the third-largest percentage of county residents in Missouri that have received at least one dose of the vaccine with 55.5%. The largest county in the state is St. Louis County with 59.6%.
Boone County is third in the state with a reported 50.2% of residents that have completed their coronavirus vaccine doses. St. Louis County is the first county in the state with 53.4% of residents have completed the doses for vaccination. The city of Joplin has 56.8% of the population fully vaccinated.
Cole County has the second-highest first vaccination rate in Mid-Missouri with 49.7%. Callaway County is third with 45.8%.
The Columbia Public Schools reports active coronavirus and quarantine cases to their website daily.
The district reported a 24.8 14-day rate per 10,000 for Wednesday.
CPS reports eight district facilities (five elementary schools and three middle schools) currently have staff out because of COVID-19. There are three staff members at elementary schools, two staff members at the middle school level and one staff member at a district-wide facility. The district has one staff member at an elementary school and one staff member district-wide facility currently quarantined because of COVID.
The district reports 29 district facilities to have students currently out due to the coronavirus. There are 17 out of 21 elementary, all of the middle and high schools and one district-wide facility affected.
There are 36 students that have tested positive for COVID-19, an increase of five from Wednesday. The district is reporting 19 students in elementary, nine students in middle school, seven students in high school and one student at a district-wide facility have tested positive for the coronavirus.
There are 192 students, which are required to quarantine due to the coronavirus, an increase of 21 students from Wednesday. The district reports 115 elementary students are currently quarantining, 59 students in middle school, 17 students in high school and one at other district facilities.
Jefferson City School District reports third straight day of no new COVID cases in students and staff
The Cole County Health Department reported seven new coronavirus cases from Tuesday.
According to the dashboard update, there are 11,097 residential cases and 286 long-term care facility resident cases. That is 11,383 total cases in the county.
Cole County has reported 163 coronavirus deaths since the pandemic began.
Cole County ranks 49th in the state for counties with the most coronavirus cases per 100,000 in the past week. Cases are up 20.8% when comparing last week to the prior week. The county has a 7.9% positivity test rate, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
The Missouri coronavirus vaccine dashboard reports about 49.7% of the county have initiated their first dose of the vaccine and 45.6% of the county's population have been fully vaccinated.
The Jefferson City School District reported no new coronavirus cases in students or staff from Tuesday.
The district is reporting one active case in a student and no active cases in staff.
The district is reporting 22 close contacts for students and one close contact for staff.
Statewide COVID-19 positivity rate drops below 7%
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) reported the statewide COVID-19 positivity rate dropped below 7% Thursday.
According to the state health department, Missouri's positivity rate fell from 7% on Wednesday to 6.8%. The statewide positivity hasn't dropped below 7% since June.
The state added more than 1,170 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours. DHSS reported 862 people tested positive for the virus using PCR tests.
That's above the state's daily average of 708 cases for the testing method.
Antigen testing was used to find 316 new probable cases of the virus. Missouri averages 210 positive antigen tests each day.
The state added seven new virus-related deaths on Thursday. The additional virus-related deaths pushed Missouri's total to 11,942 since the pandemic started.
Hospitals across the state reported 1,117 people are hospitalized with COVID-19. Data from the state health department showed 210 patients are on ventilators.
According to DHSS, more than 2.9 million Missourians have finished the coronavirus vaccination process.
That's 48.8% of Missouri's population.
