MONDAY UPDATES: Boone County adds dozens of new coronavirus cases to total

Boone County's active coronavirus cases jumped Monday after the county reported dozens of new cases. However, the county health department says most of those cases are old and the active case number will correct itself in days.

The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services reported 62 new cases Monday. However, the department said all but three of those cases are old cases that had not been added to the system.

The new cases caused active cases to leap by more than 30, settling at 126. However, the department said the old cases included in that number will be manually taken out in the coming days.

The number of patients in Boone County's hospitals dropped to 22, with three of those patients being from Boone County.

Boone County's total cases since the pandemic began stood at 17,582 on Monday.

Missouri adds more than 81k antigen tests to dashboard

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services added an additional 81,206 probable coronavirus cases to its online dashboard Monday.

The new probable cases are from antigen testing -- saliva-based tests for the coronavirus that are cheaper but less reliable than the PCR tests most people associate with coronavirus testing. The state has reported nearly 481,000 positive PCR tests to date.

The state health department said in a news release Monday that it had added the antigen test results to its dashboard, including county-level results. The department says it will follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance that antigen tests should be considered probable, not confirmed.

Dr. Randall Williams, department director, said the antigen information "will help guide ongoing efforts to respond to COVID-19."

The state is displaying antigen results for each county on its dashboard.

More restrictions eased as 1 million Missourians vaccinated

A year after Missouri officials announced the first confirmed COVID-19 case in the state, local governments continue to relax virus-related restrictions, The Associated Press reported.

The moves come as the state announced more than 1 million residents have received at least one vaccine dose. On Monday, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page announced several restrictions would be eased, including allowing businesses to stay open to midnight and increasing the cap on public gatherings. Cape Giradeau officials voted Monday to replace the city's mask mandate with a statement that wearing masks is "highly recommended."

Gov. Mike Parson issued a statement noting his administration's efforts to fight the virus in the last year, and praising state residents for their cooperation.

Boone County active case stay below 100

The Columbia/Boone County Health Department reported 14 new coronavirus cases over the weekend -- four on Saturday and 10 on Sunday.

The new cases bring the county's total to 17,520 since the pandemic began last March. The county reported 93 active cases, up from the 85 reported Friday. The county has recorded 80 deaths from COVID-19.

Case and test positivity rates are still on the decline in Boone County. The health department reported a 10% positivity rate for the week that ended Thursday. That's the lowest the rate has been since early August.

The five-day average of new daily cases stayed in the teens Monday, where it has been since Feb. 28 after peaking at nearly 170 in November.

As case rates fall the number of vaccinations of county residents continues going up. About 21% of Boone County residents have received at least their first coronavirus vaccine shot, according to the state. Nearly 60,000 doses have been administered in Boone County in total.

1 million+ Missourians have started coronavirus vaccination process

A new milestone for Missouri, in the latest data available more than 1 million state residents have initiated coronavirus vaccination.

The most recent information on the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services coronavirus dashboard said 1,008,824 have started the vaccination process -- about 16.4% of the state population. The number increased by 11,216 from the day before.

The dashboard included 1.53 million vaccine doses have been administered in the state. Department officials said 530,264 have completed the vaccination process.

A little more than half of Missouri's 85 and older population has initiated vaccination. Dashboard data said 51.2% of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine.

Department officials included almost 500,000 65 to 84-year-olds have initiated the vaccination process as well.

The state health department has scheduled vaccination clinics across the state through the end of March. Clinics are being held in each of Missouri's nine regions with two upcoming events planned in Mid-Missouri.

Barry County in the southwest portion of the state is expected to host a two-day vaccination event starting on Tuesday. The county's office of emergency management said on social media that the event could be canceled if enough people don't sign-up. As of Sunday, fewer than 100 people signed up for the event that had 1,000 vaccine doses available.

The state health department has reported more than 480,000 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic started. Officials reported 270 new coronavirus cases since Sunday.

No new coronavirus-related deaths were reported on Monday -- 8,161 have been reported since the pandemic started.

Missouri's seven-day COVID-19 positivity rate was reported at 4.2%.