MONDAY UPDATES: Missouri DHSS adds four coronavirus related deaths after analyzing death certificates

Missouri DHSS has added four COVID-19 related deaths after state’s disease surveillance system analyzed several death certificates.

Officails say the deaths will be captured and reported publicly through the dashboard Tuesday morning.

Of the four deaths:

• one in November
• two in March
• one in April

Officials at DHSS report the weekly activity typically causes a sharp increase in the deaths added to Missouri’s total the following day. DHSS is now regularly analyzing death certificates on Mondays.

Officials say the state does not track probable or pending deaths.

Boone County reports two new coronavirus related deaths; 21st death in 2021

The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services is reporting two coronavirus-related death. This is the 89th COVID-19 related death overall and the 21st in 2021. Officials report the individuals were in the 80+ age group.

The health department is reporting 11 new COVID-19 cases.

There are currently 56 active cases in the county.

The county continues to trend down as there have been 102 straight days of single or double-digit case increases.

The health department is reporting two Boone County residents are in the hospital due to the coronavirus.

The Missouri coronavirus vaccine dashboard reports that 80,762 residents have received their first dose in Boone County and 65,431 Boone County residents have completed their vaccine doses.

Boone County has the largest percentage of people in Mid-Missouri that have received at least one dose of the vaccine with 45.1%. The second closest in the state is St. Louis County with 41.4%.

Boone County is now first in the state with a reported 38.3% of residents that have completed their coronavirus vaccine doses. The city of Joplin is second with 34.4% of residents have completed the doses for vaccination. Atchison County is third in the state with 34.1%.

Cole County has the second-highest first vaccination rate in Mid-Missouri with 36.3%. Montgomery County is third with 32.8%.

Missouri's average positivity rate slightly down

Missouri's seven-day COVID-19 positivity rate dropped slightly Monday, according to the state Department of Health and Senior Services.

Over the past seven days, 4.7% of PCR tests have had positive results. The rate was down from 4.9% on Sunday.

In the past 24 hours, health officials reported an additional 178 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed through PCR testing, bringing the total during the pandemic up to 505,670.

DHSS also found 78 additional probable cases of the coronavirus through antigen testing. Throughout the pandemic, there have been 84,839 probable cases.

One additional death was reported Monday morning, bringing the total number of Missourians who have died due to COVID-19 up to 8,825.

Meanwhile, the state is continuing to see slow progress on the vaccination front. Missouri adults who have initiated vaccination crept up to 49.2% Monday, just 0.1% greater than Sunday's percentage. The population of those 18 or older who have completed vaccination increased slightly as well to 39.8%.

Out of the entire state population, 38.7% of Missourians have initiated vaccination against COVID-19, which is equal to nearly 2.4 million people. Slightly more than 1.9 million people in the Show-Me-State have completed the vaccination process, or 31.2% of the total population.