TUESDAY UPDATES: Boone County reports 11 coronavirus cases; positivity rate 6.7%
The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services is reporting 11 new coronavirus cases were added to the information hub for Sunday. The county now delays reporting cases by two days.
The dashboard is showing 45 COVID-19 patients in Boone County hospitals. Of the 45 patients, six are in intensive care and two are on ventilators.
The county has reported 42,608 since the pandemic began. The county has reported 13,728 cases since 2022 started.
Boone County ranks eighth in the state with the most coronavirus cases in total volume in the past week and is 27th when sorted by cases per 100,000. Cases are down 32.4% when comparing last week to the prior week. The county has a 6.7% positivity test rate, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS).
The Missouri coronavirus vaccine dashboard reports that 118,559 residents have received their first dose in Boone County and 105,884 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 65.7%. The largest county in the state is St. Louis County with 70.5%.
Boone County is third in the state with a reported 58.7% of residents that have completed their coronavirus vaccine doses. St. Louis County is the first county in the state with 62.4% of residents having completed the doses for vaccination. The city of Joplin has 63% of the population fully vaccinated.
Cole County has the second-highest first vaccination rate in Mid-Missouri with 55.3%. Callaway County is third with 51.6%.
Cole County reports coronavirus cases down over 52% compared to last week
The Cole County Health Department reported eight new coronavirus cases on Tuesday.
According to the dashboard update, there are 16,945 residential cases and 329 long-term care facility resident cases. That is 17,274 total cases in the county since March 2020.
Cole County has reported two new coronavirus-related deaths. Officials say one death occurred in October 2021 and the other death occurred in February 2022. The deaths were part of the Missouri DHSS death review process. The county has reported 190 coronavirus deaths since the pandemic began.
Cole County ranks 42nd in the state for counties with the most coronavirus cases per 100,000 in the past week. Cases are down 52.2% when comparing last week to the prior week. The county has reported a 5.4% positivity test rate, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
The Missouri coronavirus vaccine dashboard reports about 55.3% of the county have initiated their first dose of the vaccine and 51.4% of the county's population have been fully vaccinated.
The Jefferson City School District reported no new coronavirus case in a student or staff on Monday.
The district is reporting one active case in a student.
Red Zone report shows Boone and Cole Counties with a lower transmission rate
The newest State Profile Report shows Missouri remains at the high transmission level of COVID-19. The report shows new cases are down by 47% compared to last week with 116 cases per 100,000 people.
The report shows Missouri had 7,105 new cases of COVID-19 for the week of Feb. 25.
The report also indicates 495 residents died from the coronavirus, a 40% increase from the previous week.
The report shows 89 counties are considered high community transmission, 20 counties including Boone and Cole are considered to have substantial transmission rates, four have a moderate transmission level (includes Moniteau County) and one has low transmission.
Over 76.4% of Missouri residents 18 years and old have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine and 64.7% are considered fully vaccinated.
According to the report, over 96.1% of coronavirus cases were identified as the omicron variant and over 3.1% were considered the delta variant and .1% was an omicron subvariant.
According to the report, seven hospitals are currently dealing with supply shortages or six percent of all hospitals.
Vaccine rates are going up with 6,708 people 12 and older initiated vaccination last week, which is 39.4% lower than the last report. 784 people 12-17 initiated vaccines last week, which is 27.6% lower than the last report.
State of Missouri reports positivity rate below 6%
The state of Missouri reported 737 new and probable coronavirus cases on Monday after the weekend.
The state health department is reporting a 462 seven-day coronavirus case average (3,233 confirmed cases from the previous week of reporting). The daily average looks at the last seven days and doesn't account for the past three days.
The dashboard reported 492 new coronavirus cases through PCR testing and another 245 probable cases identified in antigen testing from Thursday, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services coronavirus dashboard. Missouri has now reported 1,123,586 confirmed cases for the pandemic and more than 273,896 probable cases.
The state recorded 155 new deaths for 15,402 total and 56 new probable deaths for 3,667.
Missouri's new cases are down 42.6% over the past week, the state reports, as recent cases go down nationwide.
The rate of positive tests is 5.9% for the last week. A higher positivity suggests higher transmission and that there are likely more people with coronavirus in the community who haven’t been tested yet.
Maries (22), Boone (27), Callaway (29), Howard (32), Osage (34) and Saline (39) counties are all in the top 40 Missouri counties in cases per capita over the last week, according to state statistics.
The state reports that 8% (.02 change for Tuesday) of vaccinated Missourians have developed COVID-19 infections. The state is reporting 275,301 breakthrough cases out of 3,443,369 fully vaccinated people. The state has reported 1,527 breakthrough deaths.
Experts continue to tout vaccination as the best tool to fight the wave of new cases.
The state reported Monday that 56.1% of Missouri residents are fully vaccinated.
COVID-19 hospitalizations are also trending down, with the state reporting 20% of total inpatient capacity and 22% of ICU capacity remaining. Those numbers are at 28% and 38% in Central Missouri, respectively. The state is reporting 1,250 patient hospitalizations. There are currently 240 patients in Missouri ICUs. The hospital status for all of Missouri is on a three-day delay, the latest information is from Friday.
Boone Health changing visitor policy
Beginning Wednesday, Boone Health is going to allow visitors 2-years-old and up for non-COVID-positive patients. The organization stated the minimum age for visiting non-COVID-positive patients in the Intensive Care Unit is 12-years-old.
Boone Hospital patients who are not COVID-positive may have two designated visitors per day. Visitors are not allowed for COVID-positive patients.
In accordance with CDC recommendations for health care environments, all visitors are required to undergo entry screening, wear a medical-grade mask at all times and maintain social distancing.
Boone Health’s Incident Command Center will continue to monitor data trends and make adjustments to policies accordingly.
