TUESDAY UPDATES: Southern Boone school board to review coronavirus plan Thursday
The Southern Boone Board of Education will review the Ashland district's coronavirus plan after holding another public input session Thursday.
The board is scheduled to meet at 5:30 p.m., according to an agenda posted on the board's website. The agenda includes a discussion of the district's coronavirus re-entry plan, which makes masks optional for students and staff. The district required masks last year, but the plan says the absence of a county health order requiring masks means the district will not make them mandatory this year.
Classes begin Sept. 7.
Another health order requiring masks would trigger a mandate at Southern Boone, according to the plan.
The district held the first of two public meetings Monday to get community input on the re-entry plan. Several parents argued in favor of masks and several argued against them.
Thursday's public input session is scheduled for 5 p.m. in the elementary gymnasium. A Zoom link is available on the district's website.
The county health department reports 899 coronavirus cases in the Ashland area since the start of the pandemic out of 22,623 cases in Boone County. It's not clear how many of those cases are active. Ashland's population is about 4,000. More than 180,000 people live in Boone County.
Boone County reports second coronavirus-related death in two days; 74 new COVID-19 cases
The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services is reporting another coronavirus-related death. The individual was in the 80+ age group and died Aug. 12. That brings the total number of deaths to 135, tying Cole County with the highest number of coronavirus-related deaths.
The county is also reporting 74 new COVID-19 cases for Tuesday.
There are currently 483 active cases in the county, a decrease of nine from Monday. The county now has a reported total number of COVID-19 cases of 22,623.
The county reported 22,005 cases removed from isolation, an increase of 82 from Monday.
Boone County ranks eighth in the state with the most coronavirus cases in total volume in the past week. Cases are down 21.7% on the week. The county has a 9.6% positive test rate, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
The positivity rate is up for the previous week of August 13 through Thursday to 29.7.
The health department's hospital status remains yellow, with 129 COVID-19 patients in Boone County hospitals and 21 of them being Boone County residents. Of those, 37 are in intensive care and 11 are on ventilators.
The Missouri coronavirus vaccine dashboard is reporting that 100,256 residents have received their first dose in Boone County and 88,466 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 55.6%. The second closest county in the state is St. Louis County with 54.6%.
Boone County is first in the state with a reported 49% of residents that have completed their coronavirus vaccine doses. St. Louis County is the second county in the state with 48.3% of residents have completed the doses for vaccination.
Cole County has the second-highest first vaccination rate in Mid-Missouri with 47.8%. Montgomery County is third with 43.1%.
Cole County reports 40 new COVID-19 cases
The Cole County Health Department reported 40 new coronavirus cases.
According to the dashboard update, there are 10,231 residential cases and a total of 282 cases for long-term care facility residents. That brings a total of 10,513 total cases in the county.
The county is currently reporting 135 coronavirus-related deaths since the pandemic started, which is the most in Mid-Missouri.
Cole County ranks 23rd in the state for counties with the most coronavirus cases per capita in the past week. Cases are down 18% on the week. The county has a 12.9% positive test rate, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
The Missouri coronavirus vaccine dashboard reports about 41.9% of the county's population have been fully vaccinated.
Weekly review adds deaths to Missouri coronavirus tally
Missouri reported 170 new coronavirus-related deaths Tuesday, including 143 that resulted from a weekly review of death certificates.
The new deaths push the state's total since the pandemic began to 10,376, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Of the 143 deaths from the certificate review, 105 occurred in August, 35 in July, two in June and one in May.
The seven-day average of new daily deaths fell to five as of Monday from 25 on Aug. 2. The state dashboard records deaths on the day of the death, not the day they're reported. However, that number might not include deaths that happened in the last several days because of reporting delays.
The state also reported 1,770 new confirmed coronavirus cases and another 549 probable cases identified through antigen testing. Missouri has now logged 618,022 confirmed cases since the pandemic began and 123,766 probable cases.
Tuesday's confirmed cases exceeded the daily average of 1,698 over the past week, according to the state dashboard. However, cases are down about 16% over that time frame, according to the state. Missouri's positive test rate over the last week is 13.1%.
Several Mid-Missouri counties are among the top in the state for most new cases per capita in the past week. Moniteau County ranks No. 10, Callaway County is No. 17 and Pettis County is No. 20. Cole County is just outside the top 20 at No. 23.
Vaccination rates appear to have stalled in Missouri despite health experts saying the shot is the best way to slow the current surge powered by the highly transmissible delta variant. The average daily number of shots administered was a little over 12,000 as of Monday.
Hospital intensive care units continue to report record numbers of COVID-19 patients. Statewide ICU capacity was at 15% as of Monday.
