WEDNESDAY UPDATES: Audrain County Health Department hosting pediatric coronavirus vaccine clinics
The Audrain County Health Department (ACHD) will host two clinics to begin giving pediatric Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations in Mexico.
The clinics will be held on Thursday and Friday. Those that get the shot will return on December 9th or December 10th for their second dose.
Interested parents and legal guardians can go to the department’s website (myachd.as.me) to book an appointment or, call 573-581-1332.
“We are happy to finally be offering these all-important vaccines to this age group,” ACHD Administrator Craig Brace said. “The five-to-11 year age group has seen a steady increase in infections and hospitalizations across the country in the last few months. This vaccine will help combat that increase.”
Currently, the department has 120 vaccines available to Audrain County children in this age group, but more are readily available across the mid-Missouri area.
“We have a pipeline of providers that have vaccines that we can get transferred to us in short time,” Brace said in a release. “If we see the demand increasing for the vaccine, we will certainly order more to be shipped to us here.”
Boone County reports highest number of active coronavirus cases since Oct. 12
The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services reported 71 new COVID-19 cases from Tuesday.
There are currently 377 active cases in the county and 26,124 cases since the pandemic began. The county reported 25,572 cases removed from isolation.
Boone County ranks eighth in the state with the most coronavirus cases in total volume in the past week. Cases are up 29.5% when comparing last week to the prior week. The county has an 8% positivity test rate, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS).
The health department's hospital status is yellow with 61 COVID-19 patients in Boone County hospitals and 14 of them being Boone County residents. Of the 61 patients, 17 are in intensive care and five are on ventilators.
The Missouri coronavirus vaccine dashboard reports that 107,260 residents have received their first dose in Boone County and 95,503 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 59.4%. The largest county in the state is St. Louis County with 62.7%.
Boone County is third in the state with a reported 52.9% of residents that have completed their coronavirus vaccine doses. St. Louis County is the first county in the state with 55.2% of residents having completed the doses for vaccination. The city of Joplin has 57.9% of the population fully vaccinated.
Cole County has the second-highest first vaccination rate in Mid-Missouri with 51.8%. Callaway County is third with 47.4%.
The Columbia Public Schools reports active coronavirus and quarantine cases to their website daily.
The district reported a 21.3 14-day rate per 10,000 for Monday.
CPS reports seven district facilities (two elementary schools, one middle school and four district-wide facilities) currently have staff out because of COVID-19. There are two staff members at elementary schools, one middle school staff member, two high school staff members and one staff member at a district-wide facility. The district has one staff member at elementary schools currently quarantined because of COVID.
The district reports 32 district facilities to have students currently out due to the coronavirus. All of the elementary schools and middle schools, three high schools and one district-wide facility are affected.
There are 31 students that have tested positive for COVID-19. The district is reporting 20 students in elementary, four students in middle school and seven students in high school have tested positive for the coronavirus.
There are 208 students who are required to quarantine due to the coronavirus. The district reports 149 elementary students are currently quarantining, 38 students in middle school, 10 students in high school and 11 students at district-wide facilities.
Cole County reports 22 new coronavirus cases
The Cole County Health Department reported 22 new coronavirus cases from Tuesday.
According to the dashboard update, there are 11,588 residential cases and 286 long-term care facility resident cases. That is 11,874 total cases in the county.
Cole County reported 166 coronavirus deaths since the pandemic began.
Cole County ranks 32nd in the state for counties with the most coronavirus cases per 100,000 in the past week. Cases are up 7.7% when comparing last week to the prior week. The county has reported a 9.9% positivity test rate, Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
The Missouri coronavirus vaccine dashboard reports about 51.8% of the county have initiated their first dose of the vaccine and 47.4% of the county's population have been fully vaccinated.
The Jefferson City School District reported five new coronavirus cases in a student and no new cases in staff members from Tuesday.
The district is reporting nine active cases in students and four active cases in staff.
The district is reporting 79 close contacts for students and four close contacts for staff.
Boone Health ICU reaches capacity
The 32-bed intensive care unit at Boone Health in Columbia reached capacity Wednesday morning, a Boone Health spokesman said.
The demand for the ICU's services has caused Boone Health to divert patients who need intensive care, except for those having strokes and the most severe heart attacks, health system spokesman Ben Cornelius said. Four of the ICU patients were being treated for COVID-19 as of Wednesday morning, he said.
The hospital is working to open up room in the ICU but is experiencing a high patient volume throughout the hospital, Cornelius said.
"Our ability to accept new ICU patients can change hour-to-hour based on transfers and discharges," he said.
It wasn't clear how many of the patients in the ICU are being treated for COVID-19, but hospitals in some parts of the country are seeing a sharp increase in coronavirus patients. The number of patients in intensive care across Missouri has been falling steadily since late August. Those numbers have increased slightly over the past week, according to state reporting. That pattern is also being seen in the state's central region.
Boone County public health officials reported 61 hospitalized coronavirus patients on Tuesday, including 17 in intensive care.
Missouri ICU numbers tick up
Missouri added over 1,200 cases of confirmed COVID-19 cases since Tuesday, according to the Missouri state dashboard. The total number of confirmed PCR cases in the state is over 718,500.
The state dashboard reports, the Show Me State has also added over 500 probable antigen cases to a total number of 157,300.
According to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, the state has added six COVID-19 deaths since Tuesday. The total number of COVID-19 deaths in Missouri is over 12,000.
95 more people were added to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) since Tuesday, the dashboard reported. There are a total number of 243 people in the ICU.
The state dashboard stated the COVID-19 positivity rate in Missouri increased to 8.7%.
State Profile Report shows large upticks in COVID-19 cases
Missouri's latest State Profile Report showed an increase of 28% in new COVID-19 cases, with 9,176 positive tests being reported last week.
At the same time, more people across the Show Me State are being hospitalized with the virus as COVID-19 hospitalizations are up 15% compared to the previous week with 631 people in the hospital.
The State Profile Report showed hospitals are still struggling with staffing as nearly a quarter of all Missouri hospitals are reporting staffing shortages.
Deaths however are down nearly 30%, as 118 deaths were reported across the state.
The community transmission level is high in Missouri, with 95 of the state's 114 counties are in areas with high transmission levels.
Positivity rate has ticked up a little less than a percent from the previous report, to sit at 7% across the state.
As the winter months roll in, testing has increased rapidly with over 115 thousand tests preformed last week, up 27% from the previous report.
