Staff Contact: Mat Reidhead or Jackie Gatz
While COVID-19 activity continues to slow in Missouri, pockets of extreme variation in both vaccine uptake and community spread exist across Missouri communities. The county-level rates of vaccine coverage through April ranged from a high of 78 doses per 100 residents in Boone County to a low of 22 doses per 100 residents in McDonald County. For the same period, the one-week percent change in vaccines administered ranged from a high of +305% in Shannon County to a low of -87% in Moniteau County. The seven-day case rate per 100,000 residents in the last week of April ranged from 148 in Iron County to 0 in 14 rural counties; similarly, Iron County also saw the highest positivity rate of 11.5% that week. Standardizing each of these measures using z-transformation to create a composite score found the highest respective COVID-19 risk levels in Iron, Lincoln, Lewis, Perry and Pike counties during the last week of April. The degrees of variation detected in each of the measures evaluated is an ongoing concern, as is the precipitous decline in demand for COVID-19 vaccines following the April 9 activation of universal eligibility for Missourians ages 16 and older. Becoming vaccinated against COVID-19 is critical in protecting yourself in addition to your family, friends and community from the deleterious effects of the virus.