Positive trends seen in coronavirus numbers

After several weeks of steadily increasing COVID-19 cases and deaths in the region, Cape Girardeau County officials got a bit of good news Thursday morning from the county’s emergency management agency director.

Mark Winkler updated county commissioners Clint Tracy, Paul Koeper and Charlie Herbst on several virus-related statistics:

• The number of active cases in the county dropped since Monday from 530 to 502 Wednesday, with Winkler remarking, “That hasn’t happened for a while.”
• The public schools are doing “a good job” with COVID. For example, he said, Cape Girardeau schools have 18 active cases with 144 in quarantine. Southeast Missouri State University deserves “kudos” for how it is handling the coronavirus, Winkler said, noting “the curve of cases is gradually going down.”

However, hospitalizations have not abated. Winkler said there are 21 virus patients at SoutheastHEALTH and 18 at Saint Francis Medical Center. He said each hospital is considered to be “at capacity” for COVID care but neither hospital system is asking for assistance right now. He said Southeast has asked for available respiratory therapists who might be available in Missouri.

Latest numbers

No new virus-related deaths were reported in the region Thursday, and daily virus case increases were less than they have been in recent weeks, with the exception of Scott County.

Officials there reported 40 new cases, bringing the county’s total number of cases to 1,424, while 1,080 county residents have recovered from the virus and 21 have died because of the disease.

In Cape Girardeau County, Public Health Center officials reported 13 new cases (2,739 total cases, 2,202 recoveries, 49 deaths). Active cases in the county fell to 488, down 14 from the previous day. Seventy-one of those were in long-term care facilities, which have seen a total of 262 cases, with 155 recoveries and 36 deaths.

Southeast Missouri State University reported four new cases Thursday for a total case count of 346 (317 students and 29 employees). Active cases fell by four to 32, as did on-campus quarantine/isolation, from 28 to 24.

Elsewhere in Missouri, Stoddard County officials reported 18 new cases (989 total cases, 797 recoveries, 20 deaths), and Perry County reported 17 new cases (895 total cases, 836 recoveries, nine deaths.

Bollinger County reported five new cases (615 total cases, 503 recoveries, two deaths).

Southern Seven Health Department in Illinois reported six new cases — two in Union County (734 total cases, 482 recoveries, 21 deaths) and four in Alexander County (109 total cases, 65 recoveries, one death).