FRIDAY UPDATES: Boone County moves to medium COVID-19 community level

Editor's note: The story was updated to show the days new cases were reported.

The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services is reporting that 54 new coronavirus cases were added to the information hub on Friday. The county reported 49 cases on Wednesday and the rest were reported in June and July.

The county delays reporting cases by two days.

The dashboard is showing 29 COVID-19 patients in Boone County hospitals. There are seven patients in the ICU and two patients are on a ventilator.

Additionally, 48,470 COVID-19 cases were recorded previously.

Boone County is reported to have a medium COVID-19 community level, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS). This comes after several weeks when the community level was considered high.

Here are the CDC's risk mitigation recommendations for the yellow (medium) level:

• Stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines.
• Get tested if you have symptoms.
• Wear a mask if you have symptoms, a positive test, or exposure to someone with COVID-19.
• Wear a mask on public transportation.
• You may choose to wear a mask at any time as an additional precaution to protect yourself and others.
• If you are at high risk for severe illness, consider wearing a mask indoors in public and taking additional precautions.

If you took a COVID-19 test at home that was positive, Boone County is also encouraging those that took the test to report the results at the link.

Cole County reports seven new COVID cases

The Cole County Health Department reported seven new coronavirus cases on Friday. The county reported one new case on Wednesday and six new cases on Thursday.

The health department is reporting that 60.9% or 46,756 of county residents have received at least one dose of the COVID Vaccine.

The Missouri coronavirus vaccine dashboard reports Cole County as having a medium COVID-19 community level.

State of Missouri reports over 13,000 new COVID cases

The state of Missouri is reporting 13,717 new coronavirus cases for the week of July 7 through Wednesday.

The state reported 920 patient hospitalizations and 107 patients in the ICU for the week of July 13.

The dashboard is showing COVID community levels for the central region to be low with cases up by 9.6% compared to the previous week. The central region includes Howard, Boone, Audrain, Montgomery, Gasconade, Osage, Cole, Callaway, Miller, Camden, Morgan, Moniteau and Cooper County. The central region is the only region in Missouri with a low COVID-19 community level.

Maries County is considered in the southwest region and cases are up 13% in the region; the county is considered to be in the high COVID-19 community level. Pettis and Saline County are considered in the Kansas City region and cases are up 15.5% in that region and the region is considered to be in the high COVID-19 community level.

Across the state, there are 28 communities, including Chariton County, that are considered to have a high COVID community level. Across Missouri, 39 counties are considered medium COVID community level including Boone, Cooper, Howard, Cole, Maries, Pettis and Randolph County. The rest are considered in the low level.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the COVID-19 community level is determined by the higher of the new admissions and inpatient beds metrics, based on the current level of new cases per 100,000 population in the past week.

The omicron variant remains the dominant variant in Missouri. As of the week of June 26, the state is reporting the BA.2 lineage is 3% of cases, the BA.2.12.1 lineage is 24.2% of cases, BA.4 is 24.2% and the BA.5 lineage as 48.5% of case.