In eight days, positive COVID-19 cases spiked by more than 900, and the breakthrough rate for positive cases was more than 30 percent in Pettis County.

According to minutes from the Pettis County COVID-19 Task Force meeting on Monday, January 24, Pettis County Health Center officials reported, as of January 23 there were 10,590 positive cases reported as compared to 9,684 positive cases on January 15 and 8,655 cases on January 10.

This is an increase of 906 cases in the past week and 1,538 cases in the past two weeks. This is more cases than the previous record month of November 2020 with 1,389 and a positivity rate of 35.45 percent.

The DHSS website is reporting Pettis County has a positivity rate of 39.4 percent for the past seven days, which is an increase from 30.5 percent for the previous week with PCR testing. The case count per 100,000 for the past seven days is 1,512/100,000, which makes Pettis County the sixth-highest case-rate county in the state. Saline County is first.

This week there were 1,724 PCR tests and 858 antigen tests for a total of 2,582. Last week, there were 2,041 tests. Locally-calculated data indicates the positivity rate for January 1-7 was 21.59 percent, with a rate of 869/100,000. The positivity rate for January 8-14 was 32.91 percent, with a rate of 1,887/100,000.

The vaccine breakthrough for the week ending January 23 is 285 out of 838 cases for a breakthrough rate of 34 percent. Breakthrough cases are persons who have tested positive for the virus after being fully vaccinated- their last shot being at least two weeks prior to testing positive.