ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. — The St. Charles County health department reported a record 172 new COVID-19 cases Monday, continuing the sharp incline in the county in July.
The dashboard on the county health department's website said a total of 2,468 people have tested positive as of Monday. There have been 1,300 new cases in the county in July, far more than any other month, and there are still 10 more days left in the month.
Last Monday, Dr. Alex Garza — the leader of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force — said the most rapid increase in cases in the area was in St. Charles County. In the week since then, the trend has continued.
St. Charles County reports the number of tests conducted sporadically, and the health department updated the number of tests Monday for the first time since July 15. The County health department reported an increase of 5,673 tests over the course of 5 days, 486 of which came back positive.
The county's overall positivity rate increased from 4.52% on July 15 to 4.98% on Monday. The county reported it's highest positivity rate — 7.97% — on June 2 when there were 799 positive tests out of 10,020.
The health department said of the 2,468 people who have tested positive in the county, nearly one-third of them do not know how they were exposed to COVID-19.
About 50% of the new cases in July have been in people under the age of 40. People under the age of 20 make up about 14% of the new cases in July.
