Tuesday, June 08, 2021

Springfield-Greene County Health Department urges vaccination as COVID case count skyrockets

 

(From the Springfield-Greene County Health Department)

As COVID-19 disease spread and hospitalizations rise in our community, the Springfield-Greene County Health Department is urging everyone 12 years and older to seek vaccine as soon as possible.

On Monday, 142 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported to the Health Department, bringing our seven-day average to 62 cases per day. 








This represents a 73% increase in cases over the past seven days and the highest average our community has seen since February 10. As of Tuesday morning, 76 individuals were being treated for COVID-19 at Greene County hospitals. This is the highest number of hospitalizations since Feb 11.

At a media availability on Tuesday, Acting Director of Health Katie Towns reiterated the importance of vaccine, especially as highly contagious variants continue to spread. Over the last two weeks, cases in all age groups except 71+ significantly increased (as indicated by the bar graph below) and individuals ages 23-30 accounted for 22% of all new cases.

“Sixty-two percent of our community is still unvaccinated. Meaning these new COVID-19 cases pose a significant threat to the majority of Greene County residents. This is especially true when you can consider the local presence of both the Alpha variant, which spreads more rapidly and can cause more severe illness, and the Delta variant, which early research shows might have some resistance to immunity that is gained naturally from past COVID-19 infections,” said Towns.

According to patient interviews, 90% of individuals who’ve contracted COVID-19 since vaccine became available are not vaccinated.

The Health Department is working hard to make the COVID-19 vaccine easily accessible for everyone, including the younger residents of our community. Those still needing a vaccine can visit vaccine417.com or call the Health Department’s COVID-19 Call Center at (417) 874-1211 for a list of available opportunities.

Number of Greene County residents fully vaccinated (as of June 8)
90,574 Greene County residents 12 and older have been fully vaccinated (or 35.9%)
As of June 7, individuals 12-15 years old are included in this percentage
According to the CDC, 53% of Americans 18+ have been fully vaccinated. This compares to 44.8% in Missouri and 38.7% in Greene County.

Cases by vaccination status (among cases where the vaccination status is known)
In May, 92.6% of positive cases were not fully vaccinated

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yikes!

You would like to think people would take the proper precautions to protect themselves and society as whole.

Sadly, a significant proportion probably won't.