TUESDAY UPDATES: State of Missouri reporting over half of all counties at medium COVID community level

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated to show Missouri's transmission and community levels.

The latest State Profile Report shows over half of Missouri remains at a medium community level of COVID-19. The report shows new cases are down 6% compared to last week with 207 cases per 100,000 people.

The report shows Missouri had 12,708 new cases of COVID-19 for the week of July 14.

The report also indicates that 35 residents died from the coronavirus, a 41% increase from the previous week.

Most of Missouri’s counties (60) are considered medium community transmission. In Mid-Missouri, Audrain, Callaway, Camden, Miller, Moniteau, Montgomery, Morgan, Osage, and Saline are a low community level county while Boone, Cole Cooper, Howard, Randolph, Pettis and Maries County are considered medium community level county. Chariton County is the only county in Mid-Missouri considered to have a high community level county.

All of Missouri except Putnam and Scotland County are considered to have high community transmission levels. Putnam and Scotland County are considered to have moderate community transmission levels.

Over 78% of Missouri residents 18 years and old have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine and 66.4% are considered fully vaccinated.

According to the report, all coronavirus cases were identified as the omicron variant or subvariant.

According to the report, seven hospitals are dealing with supply shortages or six percent of all hospitals.

Boone County reports 31 new COVID cases

The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services is reporting that 31 new coronavirus cases were added to the information hub on Tuesday. The county reported 31 cases on Sunday.

The county delays reporting cases by two days.

The dashboard is showing 37 COVID-19 patients in Boone County hospitals. There are nine patients in the ICU and two patients are on a ventilator.

The health care system capacity moved to yellow. Yellow status means:

• Delaying non-emergency patient transfers from referring hospitals due to capacity for greater than two (2) days, or
• Delaying non-emergency patient transfers from referring hospitals due to staffing for greater than two (2) consecutive days, or
• Delaying non-urgent procedures and operations to provide additional inpatient capacity

Additionally, 48,584 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 15 new COVID cases

The Cole County Health Department reported 15 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday.

The county reported 15 new cases on Monday.

In the week prior to July 15, there were 68 COVID positive cases, 43 breakthrough cases and zero COVID deaths.

According to a release, 61% or 46,791 of Cole County residents have received at least one dose of the COVID Vaccine.