The Jefferson County Health Department has reported two new COVID-19-related deaths, bringing the county’s total number of deaths related to the virus to 556 since the start of the pandemic.
The latest deaths were a woman in her 60s and a woman in her 90s.
Jefferson County is in the orange, or highest, level on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) three-color COVID-19 warning system for the fifth consecutive week.
Brianne Zwiener, Jefferson County Health Department public information officer, said she recommends everyone wears a mask indoors and on public transportation.
As of today, July 8, the county had about 767 active COVID-19 cases, the Health Department reported.
The county has had a total of 57,720 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 today, there were a total of 285 inpatient confirmed COVID-19-positive hospitalizations and 37 COVID-19-positive patients in the ICU.
Of the 285 patients confirmed with COVID-19, 145 are fully vaccinated, according to task force.
In addition, a total of 16 COVID-19-positive patients were on ventilators.
The CDC has labeled the omicron variant and its sub-variants, B.1.1.529, BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2, BA.3, BA.4 and BA.5, all variants of concern.
According to Yale Medicine, the BA.5 and BA.4 variants have been the most contagious variants so far.
As of July 2, the BA.5 variant made up 53.6 percent of COVID-19 cases in the U.S, the BA.2.12.1 variant made up 27.2 percent and the BA.4 variant made up 16. 5 percent, according to the CDC.
Zwiener said she did not have any data for the variant breakdown in Jefferson County cases.
She said anecdotally she had heard people who currently are coming down with COVID-19 are presenting with less fever and more of a typical cough, shortness of breath, runny nose, and sore throat, or “things that could be misconstrued as allergies or something,” she said.
Health officials strongly encourage people to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Anyone 6 months and older is eligible for a vaccine.
Zwiener said people may visit vaccines.gov for information about where vaccine appointments are available.
