The Health Department reported 199 new COVID-19 cases today (Nov. 13), including 10 at long-term care facilities.
With those new cases, the county has had a total of 8,671 cases since the first ones were reported in March, the Health Department reported.
Health Department Director Kelley Vollmar said a Nov. 8 report from the state indicated that among all the counties in Missouri, Jefferson County had the sixth highest number of new COVID-19 cases over the previous three-week period.
Because of the increasing number of cases in the county, the Health Department does not recommend county school districts follow the change to quarantine guidelines at schools that Gov. Mike Parson’s office announced Thursday.
According to the new state guidelines, students and school staff members are no longer required to quarantine for 14 days if they are exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, as long as everyone was wearing a mask properly during the possible exposure.
“As we have from the very beginning, we are standing strong with the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines and continuing to follow their guidance,” Vollmar said. “So, we will not be following the governor’s reduced restrictions within Jefferson County at this time.”
Vollmar said she is worried about the current rise in cases, as well as the possibility of even higher numbers of new cases during the holiday season, when families and friends tend to gather indoors.
“The time to act is now. Our public health workers, our teachers and our hospital staff are overwhelmed and exhausted,” she said. “There are no relief teams to bring in at this point. The pandemic has exhausted our educational and healthcare resources to the point of collapse. The reality of our situation today is that hospitals are reaching crisis levels of care, meaning they will have to start making life-or-death decisions regarding the use of their limited resources and staffing.”
Vollmar stresses the importance of avoiding crowds, social distancing, wearing face masks in public, good hand washing and staying home if you are sick.
The Health Department also is overtaxed and can’t keep up with tracing and contacting residents who have been exposed to people with a positive COVID-19 test, so it is prioritizing contact tracing for school-aged children, said Brianne Zwiener, the agency’s communications specialist.
As a result, those efforts are focused on young people between 3 and 19 years old, as well as on school-associated cases and long-term care associated cases, Vollmar said.
She said the state orders health departments to prioritize youth and long-term care cases.
Vollmar said county residents who are 20 or older and who are not associated with a school or long-term care facility are asked to self-isolate if they have a positive test. They are also asked to notify anyone they had been within 6 feet of for 15 minutes or more within the two-day period prior to the onset of their symptoms or positive test.
Vollmar said Maximus, the company the Health Department Board of Trustees voted to hire to help the agency with contact tracing, began staff training on Monday (Nov. 9) and will take over tracing on Nov. 15.
County COVID stats
The county currently has 2,658 active cases, the highest number of active cases so far, the Health Department reported.
Of the 8,671 cases in the county, 7,976 are lab confirmed and 695 are probable cases. A case is considered probable when a person has been exposed to a positive case and is exhibiting symptoms, the Health Department reported.
As of midnight Thursday, 1,417 people were quarantined, which means they had a confirmed exposure to the virus and were in the process of completing a 14-day quarantine period.
A total of 5,899 people had been released from isolation, according to the Health Department.
Of the county’s total coronavirus cases, 796 have been at long-term care facilities, which includes residents and staff members who live in Jefferson County.
Of the 94 deaths in the county, 55 have been connected to long-term care facilities, the Health Department reported.
The county has had at least 23 COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care facilities, according to the Health Department.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) defines an outbreak as one or more residents testing positive for the virus or one or more staff members who have worked within a facility in the 14 days before testing positive.
Color status
The Health Department reported Monday that after a record number of COVID-19 cases during the week of Nov. 1 to Nov. 7, the county would remain at the red level on the agency’s warning system.
Red is the highest level on the four-color system and indicates widespread and uncontrolled transmission of the virus.
The county had 1,024 COVID-19 cases between Nov. 1 and Nov. 7, which is the highest number of cases in one week.
During that same period, the seven-day rolling average of cases was 65.02 per 100,000 per day per 100,000 people in the county, which has a population of 250,000.
That is the highest rolling average the county has seen since the first COVID-19 cases were reported in March, Zwiener said.
Several factors are evaluated when determining the color level, including CDC and White House Pandemic Task Force guidelines. However, the main indicator is the seven-day rolling average. If the county has a rolling average of 25 or more cases per day per 100,000 residents, it is moved to the red level.
Zwiener said the county’s COVID-19 test positivity rate is currently 27.52 percent, which also is the highest since the pandemic began.
Health Department officials say they are especially worried about the spread of the virus over the upcoming holiday season, when people tend to gather with family and friends. Those kinds of gatherings, the Health Department has warned, can lead to the spread of COVID-19, which is particularly dangerous for older people and those with pre-existing health conditions.
State, U.S. stats
Missouri has had 229,376 positive cases of the coronavirus and 3,359 deaths related to the disease, the DHSS reported today.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the U.S. has had 10,508,864 cases, and a total of 242,216 coronavirus-related deaths, as of today.
Anyone who shows coronavirus symptoms or who has questions should call the Missouri State Hotline at 877-435-8411 or the Mercy Clinical Support Line at 314-251-0500. For more information about COVID-19, visit jeffcohealth.org/coronavirus-covid19.
