Hope is on the horizon as COVID-19 vaccines continue to be administered to healthcare workers and nursing home residents, the director of the Springfield-Greene County Health Department said Tuesday, but he urged everyone to remain vigilant.
Clay Goddard told Springfield City Council that he believes this month will be difficult for the community. As of Tuesday at noon, there had been a 44 percent increase in reported cases of COVID-19 in Greene County in the last week.
And Goddard said 449 new cases of COVID-19 were reported to the health department on Monday.
He told council the county’s rolling average of reported cases had been 187 cases a day in the past two weeks. But over the last week, the rolling average had risen to 239 cases.
"I'm hesitant to say that this is the start of the fallout from holiday gatherings, but we do anticipate that there will be fallout, and I fear for a very difficult January," he said.
As of Tuesday, there was a total of 22,375 reported COVID-19 cases in Greene County, and 3,465 were active. There were 226 people in Springfield hospitals with the illness. Fifty-three of them were in critical care, and 95 were from Greene County. There had been a reported 297 deaths from COVID-19.
Goddard said they continue to await the state of Missouri’s move to phase 1b of vaccinations, which will allow those with chronic conditions, those 65 and older and essential workers to get the COVID-19 shot.
You can sign up to receive email updates on vaccinations at health.springfieldmo.gov/finishstrong.