COVID-19News Joplin MO

Covid is still on the rise in Missouri

Missouri’s health director says it’s important to target younger residents with a specific message of the importance of wearing a mask and social distancing.

State Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) Director Dr. Randall Williams tells Capitol reporters that he had a discussion with the White House coronavirus response coordinator this week, about the issue:

“45 percent of our cases in Missouri were in three counties: St. Louis, Jackson and St. Charles. So for the whole state of 6.1 million, 45 percent were in three counties”

Dr. Williams says it’s crucial for 20 to 30 year-olds to wear a mask and to practice social distancing. He also says staff from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have been in St. Louis and Kansas City, helping to battle the pandemic. DHSS says Missouri has now had 70,675 confirmed COVID cases, up from 68-thousand earlier this week Missouri ranks 16th in the nation for COVID-19 cases, per 100-thousand people. He also added, “  We are 14th in the United States for new cases per 100,000. That’s 14th out of 50 states. And we are 18th for our positivity rate over the last seven days”

Dr. Williams says Missouri’s COVID cases are increasing by about 11-hundred per day, lower than the national average of 16-hundred per day. He continues to emphasize the importance of the “box-in” strategy for the state’s long-term care facilities. 115-thousand tests have been conducted in Missouri long-term care facilities, using that strategy.

Plus, nearly 90 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized in the Springfield area’s two major health systems.

Leaders at CoxHealth and Mercy-Springfield say that is more than they’ve ever had during the pandemic. The Springfield-Greene County Health Director says a close to a third of those patients are actually Greene County resident

Despite the rise in patients, both health systems say they still have room for those seeking other types of medical care.

And, thirty-six new COVID-19 cases have been reported in Jasper County over the past 48 hours according to the Jasper County Health Department. The county has recorded 1,494 coronavirus cases.

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