Pettis County added 23 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the total number of cases to 5249, according to the Pettis County Health Center.
According to the Pettis County COVID-19 Task Force briefing issued Monday, the Department of Health and Senior Services website has a positivity rate of 7% for the past seven days as compared to 5.3% for last week and 1.8% two weeks ago with PCR testing. There were 214 PCR tests and 114 antigen tests in the past seven days.
“The Delta variant from India is now about 20% of the cases in the US and the percentage is increasing every week,” the briefing said. “According to the DHSS Health Alert, the presenting symptoms of Delta variant are most often headache, followed by runny nose and sore throat, while fever and cough were less common; loss of smell was not in the top 10.”
According to the briefing, Missouri has been identified as having the highest increase in the rate of cases in the United States.
“Pettis County continues to be located between two areas of high COVID 19 cases,” the briefing said. “The US Department of Health and Human Services reports that Region 7, which includes Missouri, has 34.8% of cases being caused by the Delta variant. As of Friday, there were 853 people hospitalized in Missouri with COVID as compared to 747 people last week.”
Warrensburg, Columbia, Jefferson City and Kansas City have the Delta variant present in the sewershed.
“Many people believe they are safe without a mask,” the briefing noted. “The new variants make unvaccinated people at increased risk of infection. Even those who are fully vaccinated should consider wearing a mask when indoors or a crowd, particularly if the person has a chronic disease.”
There are three individuals hospitalized at Bothwell Regional Health Center. Last week there were three on the date of this report. At one point last week there were six hospitalized individuals. One resident is hospitalized outside the county.
According to the briefing, the DHSS website revised the reported deaths in Pettis County to 77.
Pettis County has now vaccinated approximately 31.3% of the population with at least one dose. According to the state website, as the briefing reports, 13,238 Pettis County residents have received one dose and 11,780 are considered fully vaccinated which is approximately 27.8% of the population.
“Pettis County is falling behind the state rate of 44.2% with at least one dose and 38.8% fully vaccinated. The state is reporting 54.6% of the population over 18 has at least one dose of vaccine and 48.3% are fully vaccinated,” the briefing said. “For Pettis County 41.5% of the population 18+ has at least one dose and 36.9% are fully vaccinated. Last week 291 doses of vaccine were given to Pettis County residents.”
OATS is providing transportation to vaccine clinics free of charge. To schedule transportation, call 1-800-276-6287.
Bothwell will be administering Pfizer from 2 to 4 p.m. Thursday, July 1 at Bothwell Truman Lake in Warsaw (Dose 1 and 2), and from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, July 7 at Bothwell Internal Medicine. Along with Johnson & Johnson from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, July 7 at Bothwell Internal Medicine.
COVID-19 testing is available at the Bothwell Walk In Clinic located on the first floor of the Healing Arts Center. Hours are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
Katy Trail Community Health is offering free COVID vaccines and free COVID testing at all sites on a walk-in basis. In Pettis County, people can be tested or vaccinated at 821 Westwood Drive. Go to www.katytrailcommunityhealth.org or call 877-733-5824.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported a seven-day total of 3,446 confirmed cases for an average of 492 per day. There were a total of four deaths attributed to COVID-19 in Missouri during the last seven days, representing an average of one death per day. There were 57,896 vaccines administered in the last seven days in Missouri for an average of 8,271 per day.
