St. Louis County leader warns worst of virus surge coming

By JIM SALTER
Associated Press

The number of new COVID-19 cases is rising sharply in Missouri’s largest county, and officials warn that case counts will almost certainly rise over the next couple of weeks as the omicron variant takes hold. St. Louis County officials said Monday that the county of about 1 million residents averaged 619 new cases per day over the past seven days, which was 58% more than it averaged over the previous seven days. Democratic County Executive Sam Page expressed concern about the high positivity rate, which means that many people are likely infected and don’t know it, which means they’re out in public potentially infecting others.