The Jefferson County Health Department reported a new COVID-19-related death, bringing the county’s total number of deaths related to the virus to 549 since the start of the pandemic.
The latest death was a man in his 60s.
Jefferson County is in the orange, or highest, level on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) three-color COVID-19 warning system.
This is the third consecutive week Jefferson County has been in the orange level.
Brianne Zwiener, Jefferson County Health Department public information officer, said she recommends everyone wears a mask indoors and on public transportation.
As of today, June 23, the county had about 715 active COVID-19 cases, the Health Department reported.
The county has had a total of 56,587 coronavirus cases since the first ones were reported in March 2020, according to the Health Department dashboard.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force, which reports data from the four major hospital systems in the area, reported that as of June 20, there were a total of 273 inpatient confirmed COVID-19-positive hospitalizations and 18 COVID-19-positive patients in the ICU. In addition, a total of 11 COVID-19-positive patients were on ventilators.
Children 6 months and older may get vaccines
On June 21, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services announced that both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are now available for children 6 months and older. They already were available to those 5 years and older.
“The more vaccination that we have available for our population, particularly our vulnerable population, the better protection we have across the board throughout the community,” Zwiener said.
Everyone 6 months through 4 years old may get three doses of the Pfizer vaccine with a three-week period between the first two doses, followed by a third dose at least 8 weeks after the second dose.
Or, those six months through 4 years old may get two doses of the Moderna vaccine with a 28-day period between the doses.
Zwiener said as of today the Health Department had not started vaccinating those younger than 5, so she recommended checking with local pharmacies for those vaccinations.
She said the Health Department expects to start vaccinating those 6 months through 4 years old by the end of this week or at the start of next week.
Zwiener said people may visit vaccines.gov for information about where vaccine appointments are available.
