FRIDAY UPDATES: 29 COVID patients in Boone County hospitals; 58 new cases
The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services is reporting that 58 new coronavirus cases were added to the information hub on Friday. The county reported 39 new cases on Wednesday, the rest of the cases were reported in the month of July.
The county delays reporting cases by two days.
The dashboard is showing 29 COVID-19 patients in Boone County hospitals. There are four patients in the ICU and one patient is 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, 48,769 COVID-19 cases were recorded previously.
Boone County is reported to have a high COVID-19 community level, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS). This comes after one week when the community level was considered medium.
Here are the CDC's risk mitigation recommendations for the red (high) level:
- Wear a mask indoors in public
- Stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines
- Get tested if you have symptoms
- Additional precautions may be needed for people at high risk for severe illness
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 19 new COVID cases
The Cole County Health Department reported 19 new coronavirus cases on Friday. The county reported one new case on Monday, 11 new cases on Wednesday and seven new cases on Thursday.
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.
Over two-thirds of COVID cases in Missouri reported to be the BA.5 lineage
The state of Missouri is reporting 13,180 new coronavirus cases for the week of July 14 through Wednesday.
The state reported 1,083 patient hospitalizations and 129 patients in the ICU for the week of July 20.
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 47 communities, including Boone, Callaway, Pettis, Morgan and Saline County, that are considered to have a high COVID community level. Across Missouri, 53 counties are considered medium COVID community level including Chariton, Randolph, Audrain, Howard, Cooper, Moniteau, Cole, Osage, Maries and Miller County. The rest are considered in a low community level.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the COVID-19 community level is determined by the higher of 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 July 3, the state is reporting the BA.2 lineage is 1.4% of cases, the BA.2.12.1 lineage is 16.4% of cases, BA.4 is 12.3% and the BA.5 lineage as 67.1% of cases.
