JEFFERSON COUNTY, Mo. — The Jefferson County Health Department said the county has returned to "Orange Status" due to an increase in cases over the last week.
Two weeks after dropping to yellow status for the first time in months, the health department said the county's seven-day average of new cases increased to 12.32, surpassing the threshold of 10 and returning the county to orange status.
As of Tuesday, the county has reported 21,780 confirmed cases and 231 deaths. The health department said 279 of the cases are active.
In the news release, epidemiologist Sara Wilton with the Jefferson County Health Department said the county is seeing an increase that mirrors the rest of the country.
"We are not alone; The CDC update call this week reported that cases across the US have increased around 2% over the course of the last 7 days," she said in the release.
Wilton said the UK variant is suspected to represent about 40% of the cases in the country and "will likely become the dominant variant in the next few weeks." She said Missouri likely has more than the five cases reported due to limited genomic sequencing in the state.
With an increase in the variant across the country, Wilton described the current conditions of the pandemic as a "race against the clock to get vaccine in arms."
When it comes to vaccinations, 15.2% of the population in Jefferson County has received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. The DHSS said 23.0% of people across the state have received at least one dose, and the CDC says that number is slightly higher, at 23.2%.
The Jefferson County Health Department said it has administered 7,347 vaccine doses through vaccine clinics and events. The department has focused mostly on vaccinating older and at-risk populations, and almost 44% of the county's residents older than 65 have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
The Jefferson County Health Department's Board of Trustees will meet Thursday to decide if the mask mandate should be extended in the county. The mandate went into effect on Nov. 27, 2020 and was most recently extended for a month on Feb. 25.
Jefferson County's mask mandate applies to people 10 years and older, when they are indoors and cannot maintain social distancing of 6 feet apart.
Wilton supported the idea of an extension due to current trends.
"Based on the previous two weeks’ data and trends of increasing weekly case counts for our county, I would support the recommendation that we extend the mask mandate another month to avoid any other significant increases in cases or hospitalizations," she said.
COVID-19 hospitalizations increased slightly on Wednesday, although the seven-day average decreased again. The seven-day average of 225 reported by the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force Wednesday was the lowest since July 20, 2020.
The following data are the combined figures from the four major health systems (BJC HealthCare, Mercy, SSM Health, St. Luke’s Hospital) that are part of the task force, for March 24.
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased - from 25 yesterday to 41 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased - from 34 yesterday to 35 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations decreased - from 229 yesterday to 225 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations increased - from 210 yesterday to 220 today.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations increased – from 23 yesterday to 25 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs increased – from 56 yesterday to 60 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators increased – from 35 yesterday to 36 today.
- The number of COVID deaths increased – from 1 yesterday to 4 today.
- The seven-day moving average of COVID deaths remained the same at 4 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 35 patients have been discharged, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 20,288.
- Today, staffed bed hospital capacity is at 83%, an average across our task force hospitals. The ICU’s are at 82% of their total staffed bed capacity.