Gasconade County sees decrease in new COVID-19 cases

From Staff Reports
Posted 1/27/21

For the first time since October, Gasconade County is not in the highest risk category for COVID-19 exposures, according to Dr. Michael Rothermich with Hermann Area District Hospital.

“The …

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Gasconade County sees decrease in new COVID-19 cases

Posted

For the first time since October, Gasconade County is not in the highest risk category for COVID-19 exposures, according to Dr. Michael Rothermich with Hermann Area District Hospital.

“The number of new COVID-19 diagnosis per week decreased substantially for the second week in a row, ending the week with 44 new COVID diagnoses over the previous seven days,” according to Rothermich in his weekly update for local media. “This brought our ‘7 Day Cases Rate per 100K’ out of the state’s highest risk category of ‘Extreme’ Risk for the first time since October.”

The county’s  “7 Day Positivity Rate” also decreased dramatically to just under 10 percent, Rothermich noted in an email Monday morning.  “Taken together, this data is great news and suggests a significant decrease in COVID-19 in our county.  While this is great news, we are not yet to levels where the state would recommend large group activities, or that social distancing/mask use are not still critically important for prevent spread of disease.”

Rothermich’s report this week comes ahead of an announcement made late Monday afternoon that Hermann Area District Hospital was expecting delivery later this week of nearly 1,000 Pfizer vaccines against the virus. Registrations are being accepted for high-risk residents to obtain a vaccination during a clinic planned Saturday and Sunday in Hermann (see story starting on page 1).

Missouri Gov, Mike Parson announced he is activating the National Guard to assist at mass vaccination sites in larger metropolitan areas. “The National Guard will also be deploying administrative teams to assist local health agencies and other providers with data backlogs,” according to statement from his office. He also noted “vaccine supply remains extremely limited. Current demand for the vaccine far outweighs the current supply that the state is allotted by the federal government.”