MONDAY UPDATES: SSM Health eases visitor restrictions at Mexico hospital
UPDATE 10:20 P.M.: SSM Health has eased its restrictions on visitors at its Mexico hospital.
Starting Monday, patients who do not have COVID-19 are allowed one visitor at a time during designated hours. The visitors must be 16 years old or older.
Exceptions can be made for end-of-life situations.
Visitors have to enter through the emergency room between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. and undergo a screening, wear a face covering, stay in the patient’s room or a waiting area and following hand hygiene and social distancing guidelines.
UPDATE 9:55 P.M.: Fitzgibbon Hospital in Marshall will no longer perform COVID-19 tests without a doctor’s order.
“Due to a shortage of testing supplies nationwide, we can only provide COVID-19 tests to individuals with a doctor’s order,” the hospital said in a Facebook post Monday. “If you are experiencing symptoms, or have a qualified exposure to COVID-19 as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, please speak with your primary care provider to see if a COVID-19 test is necessary.”
Testing will now be performed on weekdays only from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., the hospital said.
Saline County, where Marshall is located, reported 20 new COVID-19 cases over the weekend for a total of 352 and added 17 active cases. Five people have died from the novel coronavirus in the county, the most of any county in Mid-Missouri.
UPDATE 6:10 P.M.: Several Mid-Missouri counties reported large increases in their COVID-19 cases Monday.
Cole County, which reported 15 new cases on Sunday to set its daily record, reported only two new cases Monday. The number of active cases decreased four and now stand at 52.
Pettis County reported 18 more cases since Friday to reach 172. The county picked up 14 active cases, reporting 49.
Saline County saw similar increases, with total cases up 20 to reach 352 and active cases increasing by 17 to reach 64.
Audrain County reported 10 new cases, bringing its total to 159 with 20 active.
Miller County reported seven new cases Monday and two new active cases. Those numbers now stand at 40 and 18.
Howard, Chariton and Osage counties each reported two new cases over the weekend.
UPDATE 4:50 P.M.: Boone County reported its third COVID-19 death Monday.
The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services reported the death in a news release, saying the virus killed a county resident between 45 and 49 years old.
The county also reported nine new cases Monday, bringing its total to 764. Three cases reported on Saturday were reassigned to other county, the release said. The subtraction left Saturday's new cases at 53, which remains a record daily increase for Boone County.
The number of active cases declined by nine to reach 318. The health department's online information hub showed 539 close contacts of confirmed cases were in quarantine Monday.
Cases continue to surge in Boone County. The county recorded 249 new cases in just six days between last Monday and Sunday. More than 54 percent of the COVID-19 cases in Boone County are from contact with known cases.
Each case has about 2.4 close contacts, health officials said.
Health officials reported 27 COVID-19 patients in Boone County hospitals, a number that has steadily increased in recent weeks. Of those, nine are in ICUs and three are on ventilators.
The health department said in the release that it instructs close contacts of confirmed cases to quarantine for 14 days. However, the caseload is overwhelming health department workers, making it harder to keep tabs on those people and increasing the chance that they spread the novel coronavirus.
"Due to the increase in cases, contact tracing capacity may limit the ability to keep contacts quarantined during the entire 14-day period," the news release says. "It is possible that contacts are returning to work or going out in public before they are cleared to do so. Even if the contacts are not displaying symptoms, they could still be infectious."
The department is also talking to businesses to ensure they're following protocol to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Home sales rebound in June
Home sales rebounded in June after a disappointing April and May dragged down by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Columbia Board of Realtors said single-family home sales jumped 12 percent in June compared to June 2019. The increase marked a rebound from May’s 21 percent drop compared to the year before.
Home inventory, however, continues to lag, the board said in announcing the June figures. New listings are increasing but the hole left earlier in the pandemic was so deep that inventories remain low when factoring in the jump in sales. The number of months of home inventory dropped to 1.25, which is down 48 percent from last year, according to the board.
The average sale price of $248,748 is a 6 percent increase over last year and the median sale price of $226,900 represents an 8 percent increase.
For the second quarter of the year sales ended up down 5 percent compared to the same quarter last year. However, the sale price was up 6 percent.
UPDATE 2:25 P.M.: Missouri reported 447 new COVID-19 cases, well below the record reported last week.
The new cases brought the total since the pandemic began to 27,890. The state Department of Health and Senior Services said 14 additional deaths were reported Monday, bringing the statewide total to 1,083.
The state reported 472 new cases Saturday and 310 on Sunday.
The record of 795 cases was set last Thursday. The state then logged 662 new cases Friday before the weekend decline.
State health officials reported about 496,000 people have been tested for live coronavirus, with 5.5 percent of them testing positive.
The state reported 888 people hospitalized as of Thursday -- the latest figure available -- according to the state COVID-19 information hub. The state reports hospital numbers on a 72-hour delay and had not updated the number Monday.
That figure is about 100 less than the early-May peak for hospitalizations and well above the levels of much of May and June, when hospitalizations hovered in the area of 600 and state officials touted record lows.
Among the Mid-Missouri counties reporting large increases in cases Monday was Audrain. The health department reported an additional 10 cases since Saturday to reach 159 overall and 20 active cases.
UPDATE 11:30 A.M.: At least three Mid-Missouri counties confirmed new cases of COVID-19 on Monday.
Health departments in Howard, Chariton and Osage counties each made Facebook posts about the increased coronavirus cases.
Howard County health officials said two county residents recently tested positive. According to a Monday morning post, the county had three active cases.
Health officials have confirmed eight COVID-19 cases in the county since the pandemic started.
The Chariton County Health Center and the Osage County Health Department were also notified about two new COVID-19 cases in each county.
The health center said it's working with the state health department on contact tracing. Health workers said Chariton County confirmed eight cases of COVID-19, two of which were active.
The new cases in Osage County brought active cases to eight and total cases to 15, according to a social media post.
Osage County's Emergency Management Agency said the people who tested positive and any recent contacts were notified Sunday.
ORIGINAL: A new COVID-19 testing site is set to open Monday morning in Columbia.
MU Health Care will open a drive-thru testing site at Mizzou North on the Business Loop at 8 a.m. It will be open until 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, then again from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.
In a news release, MU Health Care said it's opening the new site to help with an increase in how many people are being tested.
At its site near the Mizzou softball stadium, MU Health Care said it tested an average of 650 patients per day the week of July 6, leaving people waiting several hours to get tested.
That number was more than double the number of tests in the previous week.
Patients who test negative will also no longer get a phone call, MU Health Care said. Instead, they can check their results online within 72 hours. Anyone who tests positive will still get a phone call within 24-48 hours.
