Statistics released by the Springfield-Greene County Health Department highlight the importance of vaccines in the fight against COVID-19.
Health department officials said in a news release that 78 percent of positive cases reported in Greene County in December were unvaccinated, 20 percent were fully vaccinated and two percent were fully vaccinated and boosted.
Data from CoxHealth show that a booster shot for COVID-19 can prevent severe illness. On January 3, only five percent of those admitted with the illness were vaccinated. None of those in the hospital on that date had received a booster shot. No one who had been fully vaccinated ended up in critical care.
Since January 2021, 90.5 percent of those who tested positive for COVID-19 in Greene County were not vaccinated.
COVID-19 vaccine information is available at Vaccine417.com or by calling 417-874-1211.
The health department reported that 10 people died of COVID-19 in December. They are a woman in her 20s, a woman in her 50s, a man in his 50s, a woman in her 60s, five men in their 70s and a woman in her 80s. The deaths occurred as COVID-19 hospitalizations increased 58 percent from December 1 to 31. A total of 651 Greene County residents has died of COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
As of December 31, the seven-day rolling average of COVID-19 cases had more than doubled—reaching 174 cases per day, compared to 75 on December 1.
During December, cases among kids five to 17-years-old exceeded 400 for the first time since July 2021.
View the Springfield-Greene County Health Department's COVID-19 dashboard here.