The number of positive cases of COVID-19 infection in Perry County jumped to 103 on Friday as the Perry County Health Department reported a double-digit increase in a single day — 13 on Friday — the largest one-day increase since the first local case was reported on March 21.
There are now 36 active cases in Perry County.
Health department director Sylvia Forester on Friday had no immediate comment on the spike, saying her nurses and contact tracers were still busy contacting those affected by the new cases.
This newest set of positive cases reflect a 68.8 percent increase in positive cases since May 31 and a 21.1 percent increase since the state entered Phase 2 of Gov. Mike Parson's "Show-Me Strong" recovery plan on Tuesday, an average of 2.2 cases every day in June.
Since the statewide stay-at-home order expired on May 4, Perry County has seen an increase of 134 percent in confirmed cases of COVID-19, rising from 44 on May 6 to Friday's total.
On Wednesday, Forester told the Republic-Monitor that the 23 new cases her department had seen since May were not the result of any increased testing in the county.
“We are not doing community-wide testing events in Perry County and we have not received any positives from the recent community testing events in surrounding counties," Forester said. “Outside of our two recent outbreaks and the sentinel testing in response to those, the positives from the general community are close contact cases or those that presented and received testing due to being symptomatic.”
During a press briefing last week touting the state’s move from Phase 1 to Phase 2 of his “Show-Me Strong” recovery plan, Gov. Mike Parson said that testing across the state had increased more than 220 percent, averaging more than 10,000 tests per weekday.
In Perry County, the only mass testing event was held the first week of May and yielded two positives from 338 tests, and three days of voluntary testing at the Gilster-Mary Lee cereal plant yielded 26 positives from 189 samples. That also happened in May.
There has been no other large-scale testing in the county and — as of Wednesday — no local cases had been reported from mass testing events in other counties. According to Forester, local testing has largely been limited to symptomatic individuals and most were the result of close contact with infected individuals.
While Perry County has been lucky when it comes to recoveries from COVID-19 — as of Friday, there have been 67 reported, leaving 36 active cases — with no deaths, Forester said it’s not as rosy a picture as it might seem.
“We have had multiple hospitalizations and many people that have been on ventilators,” Forester said. “Also, those that have been hospitalized and ventilated have not been just our senior citizens, but young healthy adults as well. What we ask of the public is not just to prevent death, but prevent pain and suffering as well.”
Forester said the state and county stay-at-home orders issued in March were effective in helping control the spread of the disease, but that continuing to follow most of the restrictions is wise.
As of Friday, the health department reports 7 hospitalizations for COVD-19 with 3 on ventilators.
“The stay at home order was very helpful to ensure that at the beginning of this our hospitals weren’t overwhelmed, to get PPE supplies out, and to control local effects on citizens – including prevent death,” Forester said. “There is risk associated with everything we do; mitigating that risk is the key. The guidelines have not changed. Social distancing — and if you can’t, wear a mask— washing your hands, sanitizing commonly touched surfaces, and staying home if you are sick are some of the best actions you can do to help protect yourself and protect others from you.”
