The Pettis County COVID-19 Task Force held their weekly meeting on Monday and it was reported that there has been an increase of more than 200 positive cases of COVID-19 in the county.
According to the Pettis County Health Center, there are 3304 cases compared to 3089 cases the previous week. This is an increase of 215 cases in the past week.
The Health Center says that these numbers are an improvement, but there are a lot of cases from the holiday weekend that have not yet been counted. The positivity rate for the week of November 15-21 is 29.65% and the rate is 703.84 per 100,000. There were more tests conducted this week as there was community surveillance. There were 138 Pettis County residents tested at the Fairgrounds and 14 were positive.
Based upon the public health warning issued by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Pettis County is an extreme risk county. The parameters for being an extreme risk county are a PCR 7-day positivity rate of 15% or above and a 7 day case rate per 100,000 of 350 or above. Pettis County far exceeds these thresholds.
Due to the large number of cases the Health Center has received, they are no longer able to call all positive cases within several days of receiving the notification. According to the Health Center, they are not receiving information from testing sites outside of the county, including CVS, in a timely manner. Therefore, anyone who receives a positive test result from the place where they are tested are to remain in isolation for ten days from the test. Isolation means no close contact with anyone in your household including sleeping arrangements. If you cannot remain separate, then everyone must wear a mask when within 6 feet of each other. If that is not possible, then the quarantine for household members will begin at the end of the ten day isolation for the positive case. The Health Center will call you within the ten day period of isolation. If you do not hear from the Health Center after ten days, you are asked to contact them directly as they may not have been notified of your test result.