Cape County meets two of three criteria to eliminate face-covering order

For the first time since last fall, Cape Girardeau County’s COVID-19 data shows the county meets two of three criteria of several necessary for health officials to eliminate the county’s face-covering order.

According to information provided by the county’s Public Health Center, active cases fell by a net of 233 Wednesday to 96, below the 250 baseline called for in the county’s order, and the 14-day tally of new cases is 127, below the threshold of 200 outlined in the order.

Active cases began rising in September and climbed steeply throughout November. Through December and into January, the county’s number of active cases hovered around 1,500. But in January, the numbers began falling, and they have cratered in the past two weeks.

In November, new case counts often grew by 100 or more each day, before leveling off in January.

As of Wednesday, the county’s total number of coronavirus cases was 9,312 — with only four new cases added from the previous day — and 132 county residents have died from the virus.

The county’s face-covering order spells out one other criteria necessary to eliminate it. The testing rate would have to fall below 5% for a two-week period. As of Wednesday, the county’s two-week average testing rate was 10.1%

The order allows for two other ways to eliminate the order — a “COVID-19 vaccine becomes widely available to the general public” or a “highly effective, relatively low-cost COVID-19 therapeutic treatment becomes widely available.”

Missouri is in the first phase of a three-phase vaccination plan and is set to move to the final tier of the phase March 15.