FRIDAY UPDATES: Over 1,700 vaccinated during Cole County vaccination event
Over 1,700 Cole County residents went to The Linc in Jefferson City and received the Pfizer vaccine during a mass vaccination event.
Gov. Mike Parson attended the event this morning with other health officials.
Cole County Health Director Kristi Campbell said health officials gave out a total of 1,795 doses today.
A spokesperson also says 700 Jefferson City school staff members were signed up to get the shot.
The unopened vials will be used next week in Cole County clinics.
Those that received the vaccine Friday will need to get a second dose on April 9.
More than a quarter of Boone County residents receive first coronavirus vaccine dose
Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services is reporting 18 new COVID-19 cases. There are currently 98 active cases in the county, an eight case decrease from Thursday.
The county now has a reported total number of COVID-19 cases of 17,767.
The county has reported the total number of cases removed from isolation is 17,586, a 26 case increase from Thursday.
Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services dashboard has reported the latest five-day average as 17.
The dashboard is reporting the positivity rate of 11% for the week of March 4 through March 11. The last week's positivity rate is 12.7% for March 12 through last Thursday.
The county continues to trend down as there have been 50 straight days of single or double-digit case increases.
The health department is reporting the total number of hospitalizations in Boone County is 23.
The number of Boone County residents hospitalized is reported to be seven.
The dashboard is reporting seven COVID-19 patients in the ICU and four patients on ventilators.
The hospital status remains in 'Green' status. 'Green' status is when hospitals are operating within licensed bed capacity; accepting patient transfers from referring hospitals within standard care operating procedures.
The State of Missouri coronavirus vaccine dashboard is reporting that 45,293 residents have received their first dose in Boone County.
The county has the largest percentage of people in Mid-Missouri that have received at least one dose of the vaccine with 25.1%.
Howard and Saline County now have the second largest with 23.2% of the population have received the first dose of the vaccine.
Missouri COVID-19 positivity rate unchanged for 5 days
Missouri's seven-day COVID-19 positivity rate has stayed at the same level for the past five days, health officials said on the coronavirus dashboard.
Since Monday, the rate has been reported at 4.5% and has not been reported above that level in the first half of the month.
The rate fell for months from early January until recently when it has plateaued. At the beginning of 2021, Missouri's seven-day rate was reported around 20% -- about five times higher than what it is currently.
Decreases in new COVID-19 cases and testing have caused the rate to drop.
Health department data said Mississippi County in southeast Missouri had the worst in the state positivity rate over the week ending on Tuesday at 28%. Macon County had the highest positivity rate reported in Mid-Missouri at 20%.
Boone and Cole counties were tied with several others at 3% COVID-19 positivity, according to the dashboard.
The state health department reported 379 new COVID-19 cases through PCR testing bringing the pandemic total up to 485,388. The department also reported four more virus-related deaths bringing the pandemic total to 8,368.
Nearly 1.3 million Missourians have initiated coronavirus vaccination, the dashboard said. Health officials reported the state is closing in on 2 million total vaccine doses administered.
The health department said more than 698,000 state residents have completed vaccination.
Vaccinations are expected to increase with vaccine clinics being held on Friday. One of the events is being held at The Linc in Jefferson City. County education workers were given the first crack at signing up for vaccine shots.
A mass vaccination site is also being held at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City Friday morning. Gov. Mike Parson announced Thursday that 8,000 vaccine doses will be available at the event.
The state has scheduled many vaccine clinics across the state through the end of the month.
Virus-related hospitalizations and ICU stays were close to the numbers reported a day earlier. Hospital officials said 902 were in the hospital and 162 others were in the ICU.
