WEDNESDAY UPDATES: Hy-Vee expands coronavirus vaccine availability to all pharmacy locations
Hy-Vee, Inc. announces that the coronavirus vaccine is now available at all of the company’s more than 270 Hy-Vee Pharmacy locations.
The Hy-Vee at Rock Bridge Shopping Center has 600 doses of the Pfizer vaccine that are unscheduled and available to receive.
Free COVID-19 vaccinations are available at all Hy-Vee pharmacies by appointment only.
In addition to vaccinating at its retail pharmacy locations, Hy-Vee is also working with hundreds of facilities to organize workplace vaccination clinics for front line essential workers and, as state eligibility allows, other workplace employees.
Cole County reports over 8,000 coronavirus cases since pandemic started
The Cole County Health Department is reporting six new coronavirus cases Wednesday.
The county went past the 8,000 case threshold with 8,005 total cases since March of last year.
The county reports a total 270 long term care facility resident cases and 7,735 cases in the county.
The county reports 117 total deaths with 54 of them coming from residents in long term care facilities.
Boone County reports over 30 percent of the population receive first coronavirus vaccination
The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services is reporting seven new COVID-19 cases.
There are currently 46 active cases in the county, down two from Tuesday.
The county now has a reported total number of COVID-19 cases of 17,896.
The county has reported the total number of cases removed from isolation is 17,765.
The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services dashboard has reported the latest five-day average as five.
The dashboard is reporting the positivity rate for March 19 through last Thursday is 6.7%.
The county continues to trend down as there have been 62 straight days of single or double-digit case increases.
The health department is reporting the total number of hospitalizations in Boone County is 16.
The number of Boone County residents hospitalized is reported to be two.
The dashboard is reporting two COVID-19 patients in the ICU and no patients on a ventilator.
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 54,540 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 30.2%.
Saline County has the second-highest first vaccination rate in Mid-Missouri with 26.8%. Cole County is third with 25.9%.
More than 1,000 coronavirus vaccine shots left at Moniteau County clinic
Officials are telling anyone who wants a coronavirus vaccine shot to get one Wednesday in California, Missouri.
State and local authorities teamed up for a two-day clinic this week at the United Church of Christ. The clinic began Tuesday with more than 2,000 shots available.
Clinic organizers have had trouble filling appointments for the shots. The Missouri State Highway Patrol, which is helping run the clinic, said on social media just after 11 a.m. Wednesday that shots are now open to anyone without any eligibility restrictions.
The shots will be administered on a first-come, first-served basis until 5 p.m., the patrol said. Cpl. Kyle Green said at about noon that well over 1,000 shots were available.
Anyone who wants a shot can register at the state's Vaccine Navigator website.
Moniteau County has one of the lowest rates of residents receiving at least their first coronavirus vaccine shot of all the counties in Mid-Missouri at 19.3%, according to state data. Boone County leads the region at 30.2%.
Missouri Hospital Association says coronavirus vaccination leads to fewer hospitalizations
The Missouri Hospital Association said in a news release on Wednesday coronavirus vaccination could be leading to a drop in the state's virus-related hospitalization rate.
The hospital association said in the release Missouri's elderly population has had far more vaccinations than those younger. The state health department's COVID-19 dashboard said more than 64% of all elderly residents have initiated vaccination compared to an average of 22% of the age groups younger than 64.
The release said from the time vaccines became available until recently, virus-related hospitalizations for Missourians 60 and older decreased 15.3%. At the same time, the hospitalization rate for residents younger than 60 increased by 32.1%.
Hospital association officials said the discrepancy in hospitalizations is because of the higher vaccination rate among elderly residents.
Overall, statewide hospitalizations have fallen to some of the lowest levels seen since the pandemic started.
The COVID-19 dashboard said 784 people were hospitalized because of the coronavirus in the latest data available compared to the pandemic high of 2,862 reported on Dec. 22, 2020.
Hospital association officials said vaccines are working to decrease the number of hospitalizations in Missouri.
“The evidence is showing us that vaccines are working. It is essential that we move Missourians from the ‘wait and see how it is working’ category to the ‘get it right away’ category,” Missouri Hospital Association President and CEO Herb Kuhn said in the release.
One-quarter of all Missourians initiate coronavirus vaccination
Missouri's state health department said on Wednesday that one in every four state residents has initiated coronavirus vaccination.
Since vaccines became available in December 2020, more than 1.5 Missourians have taken at least one dose of a two-shot vaccine or the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
In that same amount of time, more than 2.4 million total vaccine doses have been administered across the state with 931,000 having completed vaccination.
The state's elderly population has the highest vaccination rates, according to the health department's COVID-19 dashboard. As of Wednesday, 64.5% of residents 65 and older have initiated vaccination. About 28% of the state's 35-64-year-olds have initiated vaccination as well.
Boone County had one of the highest vaccination rates in the state with 30.2% of residents initiating the process. Just south of Mid-Missouri Pulaski County had the worst in the state vaccination rate of 7.6%.
Some rural counties have had extra doses after vaccine clinics. On Tuesday, the Moniteau County Health Center announced it was allowing walk-ins because registration was low.
However, vaccinations are expected to increase with vaccine clinics scheduled throughout the state. The Cole County Commission approved a plan Tuesday to set up a permanent vaccination site at the Capital Mall. County leaders said the site could vaccinate up to 4,000 people a week.
Health officials have reported 407 new COVID-19 cases to bring the state's pandemic total up to 489,374. Nearly 300 probable COVID-19 cases were also reported on the dashboard bringing the state's total up to 87,634.
Three additional deaths were added to the dashboard -- nearly 8,500 people have died in Missouri since the pandemic started.
For the third day in a row, the dashboard reported Missouri's seven-day COVID-19 positivity rate at 4.2%.
