THURSDAY UPDATES: Boone County reports COVID cases down over 28% compared to last week
The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services is reporting four new coronavirus cases were added to the information hub from Tuesday. The county delays reporting cases by two days.
The dashboard is showing 15 COVID-19 patients in Boone County hospitals. Of the 15 patients, one patient is in intensive care and one patient is on a ventilator.
The county has reported 42,796 since the pandemic began. The county has reported 13,917 cases since 2022 started.
Boone County ranks seventh in the state with the most coronavirus cases in total volume in the past week and is 40th when sorted by cases per 100,000. Cases are down 28.9% when comparing last week to the prior week. The county has a 2.9% positivity test rate, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS).
The Missouri coronavirus vaccine dashboard reports that 118,733 residents have received their first dose in Boone County and 106,253 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 65.8%. The largest county in the state is St. Louis County with 70.8%.
Boone County is third in the state with a reported 58.9% of residents that have completed their coronavirus vaccine doses. St. Louis County is the first county in the state with 62.9% of residents having completed the doses for vaccination. The city of Joplin has 63.4% of the population fully vaccinated.
Cole County has the second-highest first vaccination rate in Mid-Missouri with 55.6%. Callaway County is third with 51.8%.
Cole County reports one new coronavirus case
The Cole County Health Department reported one new coronavirus case on Thursday.
According to the dashboard update, there are 17,015 residential cases and 330 long-term care facility resident cases. That is 17,345 total cases in the county since March 2020.
The county has reported 199 coronavirus deaths since the pandemic began.
Cole County ranks 29th in the state for counties with the most coronavirus cases per 100,000 in the past week. Cases are up 21.4% when comparing last week to the prior week. The county has reported a 3.6% positivity test rate, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
The Missouri coronavirus vaccine dashboard reports about 55.6% of the county have initiated their first dose of the vaccine and 51.7% of the county's population have been fully vaccinated.
The Jefferson City School District reported no new coronavirus case in a student or in a staff member on Wednesday.
The district is reporting three active cases in students and one in a staff member.
State of Missouri COVID cases are down 24% compared to last week
The state of Missouri reported 755 new and probable coronavirus cases from Thursday.
The state health department is reporting a 162 seven-day coronavirus case average (1,136 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 330 new coronavirus cases through PCR testing and another 425 probable cases identified in antigen testing from Thursday, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services coronavirus dashboard. Missouri has now reported 1,130,791 confirmed cases for the pandemic and more than 277,981 probable cases.
The state added two deaths for 16,038 total and no new probable deaths were added for 3,833.
Missouri's new cases are down 24% over the past week, the state reports, as recent cases go down nationwide.
The rate of positive tests is 2.8% for the last week. A higher positivity rate suggests higher transmission and that there are likely more people with coronavirus in the community who haven’t been tested yet.
Howard (4), Monroe (23), Callaway (27), Cole (29) and Boone (40) 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 8.1% (.01 change for Thursday) of vaccinated Missourians have developed COVID-19 infections. The state is reporting 280,815 breakthrough cases out of 3,468,277 fully vaccinated people. The state has reported 1,861 breakthrough deaths.
Experts continue to tout vaccination as the best tool to fight the wave of new cases.
The state reported Wednesday that 56.5% of Missouri residents are fully vaccinated.
COVID-19 hospitalizations are also trending down, with the state reporting 22% of total inpatient capacity and 24% of ICU capacity remaining. Those numbers are at 24% and 34% in Central Missouri, respectively. The state is reporting 629 patient hospitalizations. There are currently 102 patients in Missouri ICUs. The hospital status for all of Missouri is on a three-day delay, the latest information is from Wednesday.
