FRIDAY UPDATES: Boone County reports 1st dose vaccination rate is up to 16%
Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services is reporting 11 new COVID-19 cases.
The health department is currently reporting 146 active cases.
The county now has a reported total number of COVID-19 cases of 17,421.
The county has reported the total number of cases removed from isolation is 17,199.
The State of Missouri coronavirus vaccine dashboard is reporting that 28,956 residents have received their first dose in Boone County.
The county has the third-largest percentage of people that have received at least one dose of the vaccine with 16%.
Saline County has the largest with 18.1% of the population have received the first dose of the vaccine. Montgomery County is second with 16.2% and Howard County is fourth with a 15.7% vaccination rate.
Missouri continues monitoring for COVID-19 variant cases
The state health department has continued monitoring for COVID-19 variants as cases continue to pop up across the country.
As of Friday afternoon, one case of the UK COVID-19 variant and three cases of the California variant have been confirmed in the state.
The health department recently noted that wastewater samples have shown more UK variant cases across the state. It has also been spotted in Columbia.
A release from the health department said even though sewer analysis has shown a wider spread of the UK variant, it is not correlated to increasing cases of the variant.
The release said officials are also monitoring for Brazilian and South African COVID-19 variants. Health department director Dr. Randall Williams said no cases of either variant have been spotted in Missouri.
The health department director said California variant cases do not have to be reported like the Brazil, South African and UK variants. Williams told ABC 17 the California variant has not been prevalent around the Midwest. He added that Kansas health officials have not confirmed any cases as of yet.
Williams included a new variant out of New York was confirmed this week. As of Friday, no New York variant cases have been confirmed in the state.
Williams said even though no cases have been confirmed of those three variants, the health department is still recommending people get tested for COVID-19 and that vaccinations should continue.
Decline in COVID-19 testing reduces testing availability
A statewide decline in COVID-19 testing has reduced testing availability in Mid-Missouri.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services coronavirus dashboard said COVID-19 testing has seen a drop off starting in early January.
The week of Jan. 3, the health department recorded about 127,000 tests. A month later, total testing numbers were down to a little more than 75,000 for the week of Feb. 7. Weekly testing fell again in the following week going down to 56,028.
In response to the declining testing numbers, Mid-Missouri health care systems have canceled or reduced testing hours. On Friday, Boone Hospital Center announced a decrease in testing has closed its weekend drive-thru testing site. Also on Friday, a free testing event planned to be held in Columbia was canceled because of low participation.
Earlier in the week, MU Health Care announced reduced testing hours at its weekend drive-thru clinic. And SSM Health officials said the drive-thru testing site in Mexico has been closed.
The state dashboard said Boone and Howard were in the top-five Missouri counties for testing over the last seven days. Atchison County in the rural northwest part of the state was the worst over the last week with fewer than 100 tests.
Missouri's COVID-19 positivity rate has also fallen alongside testing rates. On Friday, the seven-day positivity rate was reported at 5.6%, the lowest its been since late June.
Health officials reported 394 new COVID-19 cases bringing the pandemic total up to 477,472. The department also reported 11 more virus-related deaths, 7,913 Missourians have died since the pandemic started.
Total vaccines administered in Missouri were up to 1.18 million. The health department said 784,938, or 12.8% of the state population have received at least one dose of vaccine.
