The Jefferson County Health Department reported 59 new COVID-19 cases in the county today (Aug. 24), including 28 cases at long-term care facilities.
With the latest cases, the county has had a total of 2,471 since the first ones were reported in March.
Of the total cases, 674 are open, or active, ones, the Health Department reported.
Active cases are the number of positive cases excluding COVID-19 deaths and those patients who have been released from isolation.
The county has had 40 COVID-19-related deaths, and 1,749 cases have been released from isolation, which means the patients recovered enough to be released from case management, according to the Health Department.
Eight other cases are under investigation.
Health Department Director Kelley Vollmar urges residents to take steps to limit the spread of the virus.
“Jefferson County is still experiencing widespread community transmission of COVID-19,” Vollmar said. “Wash your hands, wear your mask, keep your distance from others, avoid crowds. Help protect public health.”
The Health Department has a four-color system to warn residents about the level of threat to the community from COVID-19 and the preventive steps needed to curb the spread of the virus.
The county currently is at the orange stage, which indicates substantial but controlled transmission of the virus in the county. It means the county is seeing 10 to 24 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people per day and health officials advise residents to follow the recommended steps to curb the spread of the virus.
Orange is the third-highest stage, behind the red stage, which means there is substantial, uncontrolled transmission in the community and calls for the most restrictions to limit the spread of the disease, such as a stay-at-home order.
The county, which has a population of about 225,000, would move into the red stage if it were seeing 25 or more new cases per 100,000 people per day, according to the new system.
The color system also has a yellow stage, which indicates minimal to moderate transmission of the virus and a green stage that means no to minimal transmission.
For more information about the system, go to jeffcohealth.org.
County COVID-19 stats
Of the total cases in the county, 2,262 are lab confirmed and 209 cases are probable, the Health Department reported.
The Health Department also reported that 33 of the cases were contracted through travel, 1,014 were transmitted through contact with someone with the virus, and it’s unknown how 1,424 of the cases were contracted.
According to the Health Department, 1,054 of the county’s coronavirus cases have been men, 1,306 cases have been women and 111 are unknown.
The confirmed COVID-19 cases in the county include 77 people younger than nine, 193 people 10 to 19 years old, 473 people 20-29 years old, 357 people 30-39 years old, 394 people 40-49 years old, 373 people 50-59 years old, 268 people 60-69 years old, 165 people 70-79 years old, 168 people in their 80s or older and three unknown.
The Health Department also reported that cases in the county have been reported for the following ZIP codes: 443 cases and 234 recovered cases in 63010 (Arnold), 123 cases and 80 recovered cases in 63012 (Barnhart), 64 cases and 40 recovered cases in 63016 (Cedar Hill), 52 cases and 29 recovered cases in 63019 (Crystal City), 118 cases and 81 recovered cases in 63020 (De Soto), 21 cases and 14 recovered case in 63023 (Dittmer), 30 cases and 20 recovered cases in 63025 (Eureka), 232 cases and 175 recovered cases in 63026 (Fenton), 334 cases and 227 recovered cases in 63028 (Festus), one case and one recovered case in 63047 (Hematite), 31 cases and 21 recovered in 63048 (Herculaneum), 161 cases and 108 recovered cases in 63049 (High Ridge), 170 cases and 97 recovered cases in 63050 (Hillsboro), 131 cases and 88 recovered cases in 63051 (House Springs), 341 cases and 234 recovered cases in 63052 (Imperial), three cases and two recovered in 63057 (Liguori), one case and one recovered cases in 63065 (Mapaville), 10 cases and six recovered case in 63069 (Pacific) and 59 cases and 40 recovered cases in 63070 (Pevely). Another 146 cases do not have ZIP code information.
In addition, the Health Department reported today that it has monitored a total of 2,543 cases, and of those, 780 are still actively being monitored and another 1,763 have been released from monitoring.
Brianne Zwiener, Health Department communications specialist, said a person who is being actively monitored has been in contact with a positive case, but is not showing symptoms.
She said people who are actively monitored are quarantined to their homes and must take their temperature twice a day for 14 days.
As of Aug. 15 (the most recent data available), a total of 129 Jefferson County residents had been treated for COVID-19 at a hospital in either the Mercy or BJC hospital systems, according to the Health Department.
The Health Department, however, does not have data from the hospitals in the SSM Health system.
For the week that ended Aug. 15, a total of 2,706 county residents had taken a COVID-19 test, and 287 were positive and 2,419 were negative. That translates to a 10.6 percent positivity rate, which is a slight decrease from the week before, when it was 11 percent.
Long-term care facilities
Of the county’s total cases of the coronavirus, 437 have been at long-term care facilities, which includes residents and staff members who live inside Jefferson County.
The county has had at least 15 COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care facilities, the Health Department reported.
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.
Of the county’s 40 COVID-19 deaths, 29 have been in long term-care facilities, the Health Department reported.
The Health Department also reported that of the total number of cases at long-term care facilities, 181 are active ones, and 227 have been released from isolation. Residents in long-term care facilities go through two quarantine periods before being released from isolation.
State, U.S. stats
Missouri had 75,944 positive cases of the coronavirus, including 869 new ones today, and 1,426 deaths related to the disease, including zero new ones reported today, according to the DHSS as of today.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the U.S. had 5,682,491 cases, which includes 38,679 new cases, and a total of 176,223 coronavirus-related deaths, including 572 new 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.
