As COVID-19 continues to spread, KOMU 8 will continue to update you on community impacts.
You can find a active map of confirmed COVID-19 cases county by county here, COVID-19 cases in Missouri broken down by county.
Previous coverage:
Updates for Wednesday July 22 will be available below:
4 pm Boone County records 28 new cases
Boone County reports 28 new cases of COVID-19. There are now a total of 953 confirmed cases, with 199 currently active.
Boone County registered 28 new cases of COVID-19 today, July 22. Two cases were initially reported to our department on July 19 …
Posted by Columbia / Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services on Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Two cases previously recorded on July 19 were transferred to other counties. The current numbers represent this switch.
3:30 pm: The average age of residents diagnosed with COVID-19 continues to decrease
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services shared the importance of taking the virus seriously through a Facebook post. They emphasized how the new mean age of patients testing positive for COVID-19 is 42.
?? We are seeing a dramatic change in the ages of people diagnosed with COVID-19 in Missouri. Someone’s average age …
Posted by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services on Wednesday July 22, 2020
2 pm: 1,301 additional cases in Missouri
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services confirmed 1,301 additional cases in the state. This is now the biggest gain in a single day, beating yesterday’s record of 1,138. The state currently has 36,063 confirmed cases, with 1,159 deaths.
?? COVID-19 update for July 22: 36,063 confirmed positive patients. 1,159 Missourians lost to COVID-19. ?? Is…
Posted by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services on Wednesday July 22, 2020
11:45 am: Missouri is left behind with a limited mask-in-jail mandate
(Missourian) – For Missouri prisoners and loved ones, the state’s limited mask requirement for their prison staff has been a source of frustration during the coronavirus pandemic.
Missouri is the only state in the region that does not require all prison personnel to wear non-medical masks at all times within prison facilities. Eight neighboring states require prison staff to wear masks when inside jails.
Now, with more than 300 total COVID-19 cases directly linked to the state prison system, many question Missouri policy more strongly.
The use of masks is ‘encouraged’
Since April 3, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended using masks in public to reduce the spread of COVID-19, especially when other measures of social distancing are difficult to maintain.
The Missouri Department of Corrections has also recognized that wearing a mask can help reduce the spread of COVID-19. In fact, people working in Missouri Vocational Enterprises’ sewing factories, part of a program that helps provide job training for those incarcerated, are making cloth covers for their faces.
Designed to help reduce the spread of communicable diseases, these facial covers have been distributed to inmates, correctional staff, and other state personnel throughout Missouri. Every person who lives or works in a Missouri state prison has been issued at least two of these cloth covers, ”according to the department’s COVID-19 update website.
But prison staff are not always required to use the facial covers they have been provided with.
Read the full story at our partners, Columbia Missourian.
11:30 am: Hy-Vee will deliver masks to customers
Hy-Vee will distribute more than 3 million free skins to customers beginning Monday, July 27, according to a press release.
It is “an effort to help support the CDC’s recommendation to wear masks in public by launching a new initiative called” Masking to Close COVID Down. It is your choice, “the statement said.
Employees will be stationed at the front door of all their stores to deliver the masks to shoppers who have not yet worn one.
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