COLUMBIA – The CDC has placed Boone County back in the red COVID-19 community level.
The red level is the highest, with yellow and green preceding respectively. Boone County joins 49 other counties in Missouri designated red status. This measure is used by the CDC to give people information about what precautions families should take in terms of risk mitigation.
The CDC measures these levels by case rate per 100,000 people. In the last week, the case rate in the county was 209 infections per 100,000 people, with sixteen hospital admissions per that same population size. The level went from yellow to red when the case rate went above 200 per 100,000 people and the hospital admission rate went above 10 per 100,000 people.
According to most recent data from the Boone County health department, there were thirty-five positive cases confirmed on Tuesday. As of Thursday evening, there were also thirty-five patients with coronavirus in county hospitals. Four of these patients were in the Intensive Care Unit, while only one was put on a ventilator.
Sara Humm is the Senior Planner for Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services. She says a better way to look at these levels is the five-day average.
“We have seen an increase in cases in Boone County,” Humm said. “The current five-day average is just about 50 new cases per day. What we’re seeing is a slower uptick since about April. It’s certainly not the steep increase in cases we saw when Omicron first came about, but it is still an increase.”
Humm encourages everyone who has tested positive at home to use the online reporting system. She says that the CDC recommends masking up indoors in public, getting the COVID vaccines, getting tested when symptoms arise and taking precautions for those who are at high risk for severe illness.
