TUESDAY UPDATES: Audrain County Health Department launches back to school COVID-19 vaccine clinic, Team Audrain campaign for residents
The Audrain County Health Department (ACHD) is hosting several COVID-19 immunization clinics for teens using the Pfizer vaccine.
“This is an attempt to get more shots in arms so more Audrain County residents are protected from COVID-19,” ACHD Administrator and CEO Craig Brace said. “As schools begin back for another year, the best guardian you can give yourself when you can’t be there is peace of mind your child is the safest he or she can be and, that includes on the vaccination front. Also, for your teen, you give them the knowledge they are protected and protecting others with the vaccine.”
The clinics are scheduled at the health department on:
- Wednesday, August 4th;
- Thursday, August 5th;
- Wednesday, August 11th and
- Thursday, August 12.
Parental or guardian consent must be given and at least one parent or guardian must accompany the teen to the appointment in order to receive the vaccine.
ACHD is also working to address the low rates of coronavirus vaccinations in the county with the "Team Audrain Campaign."
As part of the campaign, vaccinated individuals will be able to fill out a survey or call 573-581-1332, to receive a metal “COVID19 Vaccinated” lapel pin in the mail.
“We need everyone to step up and help us beat COVID-19 by joining Team Audrain,” said ACHD Administrator and CEO Craig Brace. “This is a way residents can see, without asking, that someone they meet in public are fully vaccinated and you are telling the world that you are too.”
Hospital morgues fill as death count climbs in Missouri
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP)
A Springfield, Missouri, hospital says it's expanded its morgue capacity amid an increase in COVID-19 deaths.
With coronavirus cases on the rise statewide, St. Louis has begun offering immunization incentives for some city employees.
And the county where Kansas City is located says it will require many workers to get immunized or undergo weekly testing.
Missouri has the nation’s fourth-worst COVID-19 diagnosis rate over the past week, with one in every 360 people diagnosed with COVID-19.
According to Johns Hopkins data, its seven-day rolling average of daily deaths has nearly doubled over the past two weeks.
The CEO of CoxHealth says the increase in deaths prompted it to bring in temporary cooling equipment for bodies.
Cole County ranks 4th in the state for most coronavirus cases per capita in the past week
The Cole County Health Department reported 53 new coronavirus cases.
According to the dashboard update, there have been 9,050 resident cases and 273 long-term care facility resident cases. That brings a total of 9,323 total cases in the county.
The county has reported 126 coronavirus-related deaths since the pandemic started.
Cole County ranks fourth in the state for counties with the most coronavirus cases per capita in the past week. Cases are up 21.3% on the week. The county has a 19.3% positive test rate, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
About 38.8% of the county's population has been fully vaccinated.
Boone County coronavirus-related hospitalizations remain near 100
The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services is reporting 55 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday.
There are currently 620 active cases in the county, a decrease of 28 from Monday. The county now has a reported total number of COVID-19 cases of 20,673.
The county reported 19,935 cases removed from isolation, an increase of 83 from Friday.
Boone County ranks seventh in the state with the most coronavirus cases per capita in the past week. Cases are down 8.4% on the week. The county has a 14.3% positive test rate, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
The positivity rate is up for the previous week of July 16 through Thursday to 40.5.
The health department's hospital status remains in yellow, with 97 COVID-19 patients in Boone County hospitals and 26 of them being Boone County residents. Of those, 28 are in intensive care and 15 are on ventilators.
The Missouri coronavirus vaccine dashboard is reporting that 95,458 residents have received their first dose in Boone County and 84,285 Boone County residents have completed their vaccine doses. Boone County has the largest percentage of county residents in Mid-Missouri that have received at least one dose of the vaccine with 52.9%. The second closest county in the state is St. Louis County with 51.4%.
Boone County is first in the state with a reported 46.7% of residents that have completed their coronavirus vaccine doses. St. Louis County is second in the state with 45.1% of residents have completed the doses for vaccination.
Cole County has the second-highest first vaccination rate in Mid-Missouri with 44.2%. Montgomery County is third with 39.2%.
New COVID-19 cases in Missouri near 2,000 again
The state health dashboard recorded an additional 1,777 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus Tuesday, bringing the pandemic total to 559,778.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services also recorded 637 additional probable cases of the virus. In total, health officials have discovered 106,878 probable COVID-19 cases through antigen testing.
The state saw a sharp uptick in deaths reported due to COVID-19, with 64 deaths added to the dashboard Tuesday morning. However, 46 of the additional deaths occurred previously but were linked to the virus during a weekly review of death certificates.
Since the start of the pandemic, the virus has killed 9,622 people in Missouri.
The seven-day COVID-19 positivity rate remained at 14.7%.
Hospitalizations also remain high across the state. The latest verified data from Saturday shows 1,684 patients were being treated for the virus in Missouri hospitals. Of those, 495 patients were in the ICU, leaving the remaining ICU bed capacity in the state at 16%.
