The Jefferson County Health Department has added a fourth color – orange – to the color system it uses 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.
Health Department Director Kelley Vollmar said the county currently is in the orange stage, which indicates substantial, yet controlled transmission of the virus in the community.
The Health Department’s previous color system had red, yellow and green, and the county had been in the yellow stage.
However, Vollmar said the county has been in the orange stage for the past two weeks.
She presented information about the new four-color system during a Facebook Live video this evening, and she did not indicate any new restrictions were being put in place as a result of the county moving to the orange stage.
However, according to the system, one of the preventive steps that could be recommended for the orange stage is a stay-at-home order unless there is a surge in testing and tracing capabilities.
Vollmar said testing and contact tracing are working well in the county right now.
Orange is the third highest stage, and red is the highest, which would indicate substantial, uncontrolled transmission in the community and would call for the most restrictions to curb the spread of the disease, such as a stay-at-home order.
“Orange is sort of that slap in the face before you go to red and say, ‘We don't want to close,’” Vollmar said. “We need to take this (moving into the orange state) as a wake up call.
“We don't want to put any restrictions into place. It doesn't do anybody any good, aside from it stops the virus. It's extremely effective at stopping the virus.”
The orange stage indicates the county is seeing 10 to 24 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people per day.
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.
Mitigation efforts suggested for the green stage include continued testing and contact tracing, and the yellow stage calls for testing and contract tracing, as well as wearing masks in public and practicing social distancing, the Health Department reported.
Health officials continue to urge residents to not only wear masks and practice social distancing but also to avoid large gatherings and take other preventive steps to limit the spread of the virus.
“We need to implement these measures and work together to find ways to get these numbers down,” Vollmar said.
The Health Department has updated its website to reflect the new color system. For more information about the system, go to jeffcohealth.org.
County coronavirus stats
The Health Department reported 36 new COVID-19 cases today (August 12), including one new case at long-term care facilities.
Today’s new cases bring the total to 1,912 since the pandemic began, according to the Health Department.
Of those cases, 528 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 28 COVID-19-related deaths, and 1,349 cases have been released from isolation, which means the patients recovered enough to be released from case management, according to the Health Department.
Seven other cases are under investigation.
As of July 31, there were 87 county residents who self reported being hospitalized due to the coronavirus, but Vollmar said the Health Department wanted a more reliable reporting method, so it is working to get information directly from the St. Louis-area hospital systems where Jefferson County patients would be treated for the virus.
The Health Department has begun receiving hospitalization data from hospitals in the BJC and Mercy systems, and is still working to find a way to get the information from the SSM system.
According to the new numbers from just BJC and Mercy, as of Aug. 8, a total of 123 Jefferson County residents had been treated for COVID-19 in one of their hospitals.
The Health Department also reported that the county had 305 people test positive for the coronavirus and 1,728 test negative during the week that began August 2 (the most current data in that category), which translates into a 15 percent positivity rate – the county’s highest positivity rate since the pandemic began.
Of the county’s total cases, 1,746 are lab-confirmed cases and 166 are probable cases, according to the Health Department today.
The Health Department also reported that 30 of the county’s cases were transmitted through travel, 854 were from contact and 1,028 are unknown.
According to the Health Department, 747 of the county’s coronavirus cases have been men, 967 cases have been women and 198 are unknown.
The confirmed COVID-19 cases in the county include 52 people younger than nine, 129 people 10 to 19 years old, 361 people 20-29 years old, 277 people 30-39 years old, 300 people 40-49 years old, 288 people 50-59 years old, 218 people 60-69 years old, 120 people 70-79 years old, 120 people in their 80s or older and 47 unknown.
The Health Department also reported that cases in the county have been reported for the following ZIP codes: 367 cases and 194 recovered cases in 63010 (Arnold), 88 cases and 55 recovered cases in 63012 (Barnhart), 55 cases and 36 recovered cases in 63016 (Cedar Hill), 28 cases and 21 recovered cases in 63019 (Crystal City), 92 cases and 61 recovered cases in 63020 (De Soto), 19 cases and 14 recovered case in 63023 (Dittmer), 28 cases and 17 recovered cases in 63025 (Eureka), 202 cases and 146 recovered cases in 63026 (Fenton), 242 cases and 188 recovered cases in 63028 (Festus), one case and one recovered case in 63047 (Hematite), 19 cases and 13 recovered in 63048 (Herculaneum), 131 cases and 90 recovered cases in 63049 (High Ridge), 102 cases and 57 recovered cases in 63050 (Hillsboro), 108 cases and 73 recovered cases in 63051 (House Springs), 254 cases and 188 recovered cases in 63052 (Imperial), two cases and zero recovered in 63057 (Liguori), one case and one recovered cases in 63065 (Mapaville), nine cases and five recovered case in 63069 (Pacific) and 45 cases and 33 recovered cases in 63070 (Pevely). Another 119 cases do not have ZIP code information.
In addition, the Health Department reported today that it has monitored a total of 2,176 cases, and of those, 752 are still actively being monitored and another 1,424 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.
Long-term care facilities
Of the county’s total cases of the coronavirus, 357 have been at long-term care facilities, which includes residents and staff members who live inside Jefferson County.
Jefferson County has had at least 13 COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care facilities, the Health Department reported today.
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 28 COVID-19 deaths, 21 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, 134 are active ones, and 202 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 62,530 positive cases of the coronavirus, including 1,595 new ones, and 1,323 deaths related to the disease, including 11 new ones, according to the DHSS as of today.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported the U.S. had 5,119,711 cases, which includes 55,540 new cases, and a total of 163,651 coronavirus-related deaths, including 1,244 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.
