The Jefferson County Health Department announced today (Sept. 8) that it has moved the county into the red level on the agency’s four-color system used to alert residents about the level of threat COVID-19 poses to the community and the preventive steps needed to curb the spread of the virus.
The red level indicates widespread uncontrolled community transmission and calls for stricter guidelines to limit the spread of the virus, including a possible stay-at-home order.
Health Department officials said today they are not recommending the closing of schools or businesses as long as strict health and safety protocols can be followed.
The Health Department also reported that it “strongly” encourages residents to limit social gatherings to 10 or fewer people.
The Health Department issued a statement on Sept. 2 warning residents the county “was on the cusp” of moving to the red level, and at that time, Health Department Director Kelley Vollmar said if that happened, she would recommend “some form of stay-at-home order.”
She said the order would encourage virtual work and would ask residents to restrict travel as much as possible.
“I don’t think it would look the same as the stay-at-home order did in March,” she said. “We learned a lot from then and we’ve built a lot of systems to enable us to continue to operate as a society even in a virtual atmosphere at this point in time.”
However, no stay-at-home order had been issued as of today, at Leader deadline, and the Health Department Board of Trustees had not scheduled a meeting to look at additional mitigations tools, like a stay-at-home order or mask mandate.
The board voted 3-2 on Aug. 27 to issue a mandatory mask order, but less than 24 hours later on Aug. 28 repealed the order with a 5-0 vote.
Health Department officials said they plan to revisit the mask mandate, but a date for that had not been set as of today. The board’s next regular meeting is scheduled for Sept. 24.
The Health Department said the county was moved into the red level after reaching a case number benchmark.
“There are several data sources that are considered when evaluating community transmission of COVID-19. The main indicator used is the seven-day rolling average of cases per day/per 100,000 residents,” the Health Department reported.
“The rolling average hit 25.46 today, just over the 25-case threshold to move to red,” Vollmar said. “Our COVID-19 case total increased 391 cases in the last seven days with an estimated 13.6 percent positivity rate among tests.
“It took weeks to earn our current status, and it will take just as long to pull ourselves back out. We can’t do it alone. We need the community’s help.”
The Health Department’s alert system includes green, yellow, orange and red, and since Aug. 12, when the system was devised, Jefferson County had been at the orange level, which indicated substantial but controlled transmission of the virus in the county. It meant the county was seeing 10 to 24 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people per day.
The Health Department also reported the White House Pandemic Task Force moved Jefferson County into its red alert status on Aug. 30.
The White House Pandemic Task Force has a three-color alert status, which includes green, yellow and red, and red is the highest alert. A community is placed on the task force’s red alert status when it has more than 100 new cases per 100,000 people per week.
Increase in cases, hospitalizations
The county’s recent increase in cases is associated with “social gatherings, congregate settings and spread among members of the same household who are not isolating at home,” the Health Department reported Sept. 2.
In addition, “general transmission of the virus in the community is also increasing,” according to the Health Department.
Vollmar also said the local healthcare system is being taxed due to COVID-19.
Mercy Jefferson chief medical officer Dr. Karthik Iyer said in the Sept. 2 Health Department statement the hospital is seeing more positive test results and an increase in patients who require hospitalizations.
“As our healthcare team provides care to both COVID and non-COVID patients, it’s important to slow or stop the spread (of the virus) in our community by practicing safe social distancing and wearing masks, which has now been clearly shown to decrease the risk of transmission of the virus to others,” Iyer said.
According to the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force, which includes hospitals that treat Jefferson County patients, 315 confirmed COVID-19 patients and 93 patients suspected to have the virus were hospitalized in BJC, Mercy, SSM and St. Luke’s hospitals as of Sept. 1.
Vollmar said she was “disheartened” by data showing the county moving toward the red level. She said cases are increasing so rapidly, contact tracers can’t keep up with reaching those who may have been exposed to the virus so they may quarantine and not spread the disease.
More preventive measures needed
Vollmar continues to urge people to take the responsibility seriously to stay home if sick, wash hands, wear a mask and social distance. She said the Health Department has the responsibility to contact trace and try to get in front of the spread of the virus.
“If everybody doesn’t work together we are going to hit the red mark,” she said. “The power to reduce the spread of COVID-19 is in each of our hands and the time to act is now.”
Vollmar said during a Sept. 3 Facebook Live broadcast she hopes to work with the National Guard again to hold another large-scale COVID-19 testing event sometime this month, although a date had not been set as of today.
COVID-19 stats
The Jefferson County Health Department has reported another COVID-19-related death in the county today – a woman in her 90s at a long-term care facility.
“Our deepest condolences to her family and friends at this time,” Health Department Vollmar said today.
The county has had a total of 49 COVID-19 deaths, according to the Health Department.
In addition, the Health Department reported 223 new COVID-19 cases in the county since Friday afternoon (Sept. 4), including six at long-term care facilities.
Of those 223 cases, 77 are from Friday (Sept. 4) after the Health Department report that day, 69 cases are from Saturday (Sept. 5), 44 are from Sunday (Sept. 6) and 33 are from Monday (Sept. 7).
That brings the total number of coronavirus cases in the county to 3,248 since the first ones were reported in March.
Of the total cases, 882 are open, or active, ones – the highest number of active cases reported since cases the pandemic began, according to the Health Department.
Active cases are the number of positive cases excluding COVID-19 deaths and those patients who have been released from isolation.
The Health Department reported that 2,306 cases have been released from isolation, which means the patients recovered enough to be released from case management.
Another 11 cases are under investigation.
Of the total cases in the county, 2,972 are lab confirmed and 276 cases are probable, the Health Department reported.
For the week that ended Sept. 5 (the most recent data available), a total of 2,738 county residents had been tested for COVID-19, and 373 were positive and 2,365 were negative. That translates to a 13.6 percent positivity rate, which is higher than the week before, when there was a 13.4 percent positivity rate.
The Health Department reported today that 35 of the county’s total cases were contracted through travel, 1,210 were transmitted through contact with someone with the virus, and it’s unknown how 2,003 of the cases were contracted.
According to the Health Department, 1,361 of the county’s coronavirus cases have been men, 1,665 cases have been women and 222 are unknown.
The confirmed COVID-19 cases in the county include 108 people younger than nine, 279 people 10 to 19 years old, 570 people 20-29 years old, 453 people 30-39 years old, 493 people 40-49 years old, 470 people 50-59 years old, 339 people 60-69 years old, 216 people 70-79 years old, 195 people in their 80s or older and 125 unknown.
The Health Department also reported that cases in the county have been reported for the following ZIP codes: 549 cases and 287 recovered cases in 63010 (Arnold), 155 cases and 89 recovered cases in 63012 (Barnhart), 88 cases and 54 recovered cases in 63016 (Cedar Hill), 78 cases and 49 recovered cases in 63019 (Crystal City), 199 cases and 117 recovered cases in 63020 (De Soto), 32 cases and 22 recovered case in 63023 (Dittmer), 33 cases and 21 recovered cases in 63025 (Eureka), 275 cases and 194 recovered cases in 63026 (Fenton), 446 cases and 285 recovered cases in 63028 (Festus), one case and zero recovered in 63030 (Fletcher), one case and one recovered case in 63047 (Hematite), 50 cases and 25 recovered in 63048 (Herculaneum), 199 cases and 128 recovered cases in 63049 (High Ridge), 220 cases and 141 recovered cases in 63050 (Hillsboro), 163 cases and 104 recovered cases in 63051 (House Springs), 409 cases and 284 recovered cases in 63052 (Imperial), three cases and two recovered in 63057 (Liguori), one case and one recovered cases in 63065 (Mapaville), 11 cases and seven recovered case in 63069 (Pacific) and 82 cases and 55 recovered cases in 63070 (Pevely). Another 253 cases do not have ZIP code information.
In addition, the Health Department reported today that it has monitored a total of 3,232 cases, and of those, 818 are still actively quarantined and another 2,414 have been released from quarantine.
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 coronavirus cases, 495 have been at long-term care facilities, which includes residents and staff members who live inside Jefferson County.
The county has had at least 17 COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care facilities, the Health Department reported.
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 49 COVID-19 deaths, 37 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, 190 are active ones, and 268 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 95,113 positive cases of the coronavirus and 1,661 deaths related to the disease, according to the DHSS as of today.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the U.S. had 6,287,362 cases, and a total of 188,688 coronavirus-related deaths.
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.
September 09, 2020 at 06:30AM
https://www.myleaderpaper.com/coronavirus/health-department-moves-county-into-covid-19-red-level/article_37853004-f22b-11ea-bc09-2b6443014114.html
Health Department moves county into COVID-19 red level - Leader Publications
https://news.google.com/search?q=Red&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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