TUESDAY UPDATES: Boone County reports largest new coronavirus case jump since April 22
The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services is reporting 16 new COVID-19 cases.
There are currently 66 active cases in the county.
The county continues to trend down as there have been 103 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 81,545 residents have received their first dose in Boone County and 69,380 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 45.2%. The second closest in the state is St. Louis County with 41.5%.
Boone County is now first in the state with a reported 38.4% of residents that have completed their coronavirus vaccine doses. TAtchison County is second in the state with 35.3% of residents have completed the doses for vaccination.
Cole County has the second-highest first vaccination rate in Mid-Missouri with 36.4%. Montgomery County is third with 32.8%.
Cole County reports two new coronavirus-related deaths
The Cole County Health Department's latest dashboard update shows two more people have died due to the coronavirus.
There have been 121 coronavirus deaths in Cole County since April 3 when the first death was reported. This is the 31st coronavirus related death since the beginning of 2021.
The county also reported two new COVID-19 cases. There have been 8,135 cases in the county since the pandemic began.
Schmitt lawsuit challenges St. Louis Co. COVID restrictions
Republican Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt has filed a lawsuit challenging St. Louis County's COVID-19 restrictions, citing concerns about their impact on religion, education and the freedom of residents.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday in St. Louis County Circuit Court names Democratic County Executive Sam Page, the county's health department and its director, Dr. Faisal Khan. It seeks an injunction to end the restrictions.
The lawsuit is the latest of several filed by Schmitt, who announced in March that he will seek the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate in 2022. His spokesman denies any political motivation in this or other lawsuits.
-- The Associated Press
Health director confirms coronavirus orders will expire
The director of Columbia and Boone County's health department said in a news release Tuesday that local coronavirus health orders will expire Wednesday as expected and will not be replaced with new orders.
It will mark the first time the city and county have been without health orders since the pandemic began last year.
Local officials gathered last week at Columbia City Hall to say the orders would be allowed to expire and not be replaced as long as trends of low case numbers and increasing vaccinations continued. The orders include a mask mandate anywhere social distancing is not possible. They also require businesses to practice social distancing.
Health Director Stephanie Browning in Tuesday's news release said that despite the orders expiring she "strongly recommends" locals continue to use coronavirus precautions such as wearing masks, frequently washing hands and practicing social distancing.
The five-day rolling average of new coronavirus cases in Boone County has dropped to eight per day and hospitals are treating 19 patients with coronavirus. Each of those numbers is far below their pandemic peaks, with the five-day average nearing 170 in November.
About 45% of the county's population has received at least one dose of vaccine and more than 38% are fully vaccinated, according to state numbers. Health experts expect those numbers to go up after the FDA authorized the use of Pfizer's vaccine in people as young as 12 years old.
"Some local businesses may continue to require masks and social distancing in their establishments and we will support them in those decisions," Browning said in the news release. "We ask that members of our community respect the decisions of those business owners," Browning said. "Just because the Health Orders are expiring, that doesn’t mean the pandemic is over. We will continue to closely monitor the data of positive cases, hospitalizations and deaths."
The health department reported two more COVID-19-related deaths Monday, bringing the total number of Boone County pandemic deaths to 89.
Missouri positivity rate continues steady decline
The statewide seven-day COVID-19 positivity rate fell to 4.4% Tuesday, according to data posted on the statewide dashboard.
Ten additional deaths due to COVID-19 were also reported across Missouri, four of which were found when health officials reviewed previous death certificates. Missouri's Department of Health and Senior Services has recorded 8,835 total coronavirus-related deaths since the pandemic started.
State health officials also recorded an additional 258 coronavirus cases confirmed through PCR testing throughout the state, bringing the total during the pandemic to 505,928.
Tuesday's dashboard update added 141 probable COVID-19 cases discovered through antigen testing. Throughout the pandemic, 84,980 antigen tests have returned positive results.
Nearly half of Missouri's adult population has gotten at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, with 49.3% of adults initiating vaccination. As of Tuesday, 40.2% of adults in the state were fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Vaccinators across the state have administered nearly 4.2 million total doses. Nearly 2.4 million Missourians have gotten at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, while 1.9 million are fully vaccinated.
