THURSDAY UPDATES: Boone County to post Wednesday’s coronavirus information to the hub Friday morning

The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services will update the information hub on Friday morning.

Boone County ranks seventh in the state with the most coronavirus cases in total volume in the past week. Cases are up 7% when comparing last week to the prior week. The county has a 6.9% positive test rate, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS).

The Missouri coronavirus vaccine dashboard reports that 104,269 residents have received their first dose in Boone County and 94,508 Boone County residents have completed their vaccine doses.

Boone County has the third-largest percentage of county residents in Missouri that have received at least one dose of the vaccine with 57.8%. The largest county in the state is St. Louis County with 60.2%.

Boone County is third in the state with a reported 52.4% of residents that have completed their coronavirus vaccine doses. St. Louis County is the first county in the state with 53.9% of residents have completed the doses for vaccination. The city of Joplin has 57.1% of the population fully vaccinated.

Cole County has the second-highest first vaccination rate in Mid-Missouri with 50.8%. Callaway County is third with 46.3%.

The Columbia Public Schools reports active coronavirus and quarantine cases to their website daily.

The district reported a 20.7 14-day rate per 10,000 for Wednesday.

CPS reports eight district facilities (six elementary schools and two district-wide facilities) currently have staff out because of COVID-19. There are seven staff members at elementary schools and two staff members at a district-wide facility. The district has one staff member at an elementary school currently quarantined because of COVID.

The district reports 29 district facilities to have students currently out due to the coronavirus. There are 18 out of 21 elementary, all of the middle schools, three high schools and one district-wide facility affected.

There are 30 students that have tested positive for COVID-19, a decrease of one from Wednesday. The district is reporting 17 students in elementary, five students in middle school, and eight students in high school have tested positive for the coronavirus.

There are 189 students, which are required to quarantine due to the coronavirus, a decrease of nine students from Wednesday. The district reports 128 elementary students are currently quarantining, 42 students in middle school, 17 students in high school and two at other district facilities.

Cole County reports 12 new coronavirus cases

The Cole County Health Department reported 12 new coronavirus cases from Wednesday.

According to the dashboard update, there are 11,163 residential cases and 286 long-term care facility resident cases. That is 11,449 total cases in the county.

Cole County has reported 163 coronavirus deaths since the pandemic began.

Cole County ranks 33rd in the state for counties with the most coronavirus cases per 100,000 in the past week. Cases are up 8.8% when comparing last week to the prior week. The county has a 7.8% positivity test rate, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

The Missouri coronavirus vaccine dashboard reports about 50.8% of the county have initiated their first dose of the vaccine and 46.7% of the county's population have been fully vaccinated.

The Jefferson City School District reported three new coronavirus cases in students and no new cases in staff from Wednesday.

The district is reporting eight active cases in students and one active case in staff.

The district is reporting 37 close contacts for students and one close contact for staff.

Mizzou helping study possible COVID treatments, including Ivermectin

The University of Missouri is joining a national study to find existing FDA-approved medications that could help treat COVID-19.

In a release Thursday morning, Mizzou officials said the MU School of Medicine Department of Emergency Medicine is taking part in ACTIV-6, or "The Randomized Trial to Evaluate Efficacy of Repurposed Medications."

The study is testing three types of medicine to see if they help treat mild-to-moderate coronavirus cases: Fluticasone, Fluvoxamine, and Ivermectin.

"We know the need for outpatient treatment will continue to grow as we see more cases, so this is a vital public health need,” said Matthew Robinson, MD, the principal investigator and chair for the school's Department of Emergency Medicine.

Participants can take part in the study from anywhere in America without leaving home. Researchers hope to enroll nearly 15,000 participants.

People wanting to participate can enroll here or by calling (833) 385-1880.

Participants must:

• be at least 30 years old;
• have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past ten days;
• have at least two COVID symptoms for seven days or less (fatigue, difficulty breathing, fever, cough, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, body aches, chills, headache, sore throat, nasal symptoms and/or new loss of sense of taste or smell);
• take the medication shipped to them at no cost;
• keep track of symptoms over 90 days through online surveys.

ACTIV, or Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines, is led by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Missouri adds more than 1,170 new cases of COVID-19

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported more than 1,170 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday.

Data from the state department showed 852 people tested positive using PCR tests. That's above Missouri's daily average of 665 cases for the testing method.

Antigen testing found 319 new probable cases of the virus. That's also above the state's daily average of 221 cases for the testing method.

Missouri's seven-day positivity rate remained unchanged at 6.4%.

According to DHSS, eight more patients died from virus-related causes. At least 12,043 people in Missouri have died from virus-related causes since the start of the pandemic.

The state health department reported 1,013 people are hospitalized with COVID-19. Of the patients, 170 are on ventilators.

More than 3 million people have completed the coronavirus vaccination process.

That's 49.2% of Missouri's population.