Covid-19

Covid-19

News

Missouri COVID cases for September top July despite waning Delta variant wave
Missouri Independent, Rudi KellerOctober 1, 2021

The coronavirus Delta variant wave that hit Missouri in May and peaked in early August continued to abate in September, but the decline has been slow.

There were 1,221 more COVID-19 cases reported statewide by the Department of Health and Senior Services in the 30-day month than the 60,847 cases reported in the 31 days of July, making it the third worst month of the year for new infections.

And the 883 deaths reported in September – 389 in September and 494 from previous months – brought the number of deaths since May 1 to 2,373, well more than half of all deaths from COVID-19 this year.

One reason cases have not declined as fast as they rose is the spread of coronavirus infections among children. Prior to the start of school, fewer than one of every eight COVID-19 infections were in children under 18. Since the last week of August, 7,724 children under 18 – one of every four cases with reported age data during that period – have contracted the disease.

Clay LaRue, superintendent of the Van Buren R-1 School District, made a tough decision Sunday.

With COVID-19 cases spiking in Carter County in southeast Missouri, and many of those infections among very young children, LaRue shut down the district’s pre-kindergarten program for two weeks. He had previously directed faculty, staff and students to wear masks as of Friday.

There were 35 active cases among students and staff and 133 in quarantine as of Tuesday morning. Attendance in elementary grades, he said, is about 66 to 68 percent.

LaRue is worried that if cases continue to increase, he will have to stop in-person instruction for other students as well.

“We are very concerned,” LaRue said in an interview Tuesday with The Independent. “That was an email I sent to my board yesterday, that if this continues…today is our third day in masks, and hopefully that has slowed down spread and mitigated some of the spread.”

Discuss

OnAir membership is required. The lead Moderator for the discussions is James Lillard. We encourage civil, honest, and safe discourse. For more information on commenting and giving feedback, see our Comment Guidelines.

This is an open discussion on the contents of this post.

Home Forums Open Discussion

Viewing 0 reply threads
Viewing 0 reply threads
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Skip to toolbar