The Perry County Health Department on Friday announced three new deaths attributed to COVID-19, bringing the local death toll from the novel coronavirus to seven.
Health department director Sylvia Forester, who spoke with the Republic-Monitor on Friday, said the three new deaths were all senior citizens and part of the county’s general population rather than residents in a long-term care facility.
“Our thoughts are with these individuals’ families and loved ones during this difficult time,” Forester said.
According to the health department, in order to meet the case definition of a COVID-19 death as defined by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and the Council for State and Territorial Epidemiologists, the death certificate must list COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 as a cause of death or a significant condition contributing to death.
Also Friday, the health department reported seven new lab-confirmed cases since Wednesday, along with 23 additional recoveries, bringing the county’s totals to 691 cases — including 50 probable cases — and 629 recoveries since the first local case presented in late March. There are 55 active cases being monitored by the health department.
To date, 495 of those case have been traced to instances of contact with other infected individuals, leaving 195 listed as having no known contact.
Forester also noted two items of note in Friday’s update, one involving a case previously listed as probable and another involving a lab-confirmed case.
“One of our previous probable cases has tested positive and is now considered a lab-confirmed case,” Forester said. “Numbers have been adjusted accordingly in order to not count the individual twice in our numbers.”
The other notable item involved the county’s second reported case of reinfection.
“One of the individuals in today’s update was also counted previously,” Forester said. “Due to the circumstances of their infection and timelines, the State of Missouri has instructed the Perry County Health Department, they will be counted a second time in our total numbers. To date, this has only occurred with one other individual.”
The CDC has stated that persons infected with COVD-19 can continue to test positive for the virus up the three months after recovery, and advises that anyone experiencing new symptoms after that time should be evaluated for reinfection. A genome study conducted last month involving a 33-year-old Hong Kong man indicates that reinfection is possible. A similar study, conducted on a 25-year-old American man, is still undergoing peer review.
On Tuesday, data provided by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services listed Perry County — which has a population of 19,150 — as having the second-highest rate of cases per capita in the state, with an adjusted rate of 3,055 cases per 100,000 residents, second only to McDonald County, which had an adjusted rate 4,545 cases per 100,000.
McDonald County gained national attention in June, when the small northwest Missouri County briefly became the No. 1 hotspot in the country. At one point, one in 28 people in McDonald County had tested positive for the virus, with nearly half of those cases traced to a local Tyson Food plant.
On Friday, the McDonald County health department reported 1,141 cases, 72 of which are considered active, with 1,071 recoveries and 12 deaths.
Statewide, DHSS reports 120,289 confirmed cases and 1,994 deaths. The number of statewide cases includes Gov. Mike Parson and First Lady Teresa Parson, who each tested positive on Wednesday. On Friday, the governor’s office reported that Parson remains asymptomatic, and the first lady's symptoms remain mild.
The Governor's Office staff, mansion staff, and security have also been tested for the virus, and according to Friday’s news release, all proper CDC and DHSS protocols are being implemented as test results are received.
Staff members that have been identified as a close contact of the governor or first lady are working remotely, while staff members that have not been identified as close contacts continue to work in the office.
In the release, Parson, who often appears in public with and without a face covering — including a recent fundraiser in Perryville, an event to which nearly a dozen positive cases have been traced — encouraged Missourians to social distance, wear a mask, and wash their hands frequently.
