COVID-19 cases surging in Cape, Scott counties

Cape Girardeau County was placed in the high risk category for COVID-19 Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Risk categories for the county are determined by the CDC using data from the state Department of Health and Senior Services. The upgrade to high risk means the CDC recommends wearing a mask indoors in public places and taking extra precautions if immunocompromised. Scott County is also in the high-risk category.

Jane Wernsman, director of the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Department, said doing so is a personal choice and urged those with questions to seek advice from their health care provider.

The county has had 218 new coronavirus cases from July 7 to July 13, equating to 277 cases per 100,000 people. Since the county has more than 200 cases per 100,000 people and more than 10 new COVID admissions per 100,000 in the last week, it meets the high risk criteria. It has 13.5.

John Freeze, president of the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center board of trustees, said he was "a little disappointed" but not shocked by the classification.

"With the new variant, I mean, numbers are going up, and it didn't surprise me that we're moving up. It didn't surprise me that we have moved up to that high level," Freeze said.

The board president said he was told ahead of time by a health department employee that the county would likely jump to the high risk level.

The new variant Freeze referred to, BA.5, is a subvariant of omicron that has been connected with a rise in cases in numerous countries, including the U.S. The CDC said the new strain is responsible for more than 60% of active COVID-19 cases in the U.S.. It is considered by many experts to be the most transmissible variant yet.

There's "zero possibility" that the increased transmission from BA. 5 will bring a new mask mandate, Freeze said. Board members and the health department have little to no appetite for it, on top of the confusion about the authority that county entities have to enforce a mask mandate after state rulings.

State cases and hospitalizations for COVID-19 have been rising steadily since March. Both have more than doubled in the state in the past two months, according to data published Friday by DHSS. The BA.5 variant made up 48.5% of cases in the state as of June 26 -- the most recent data available.

The subvariant has mutated to become better at avoiding antibodies created by previous infections and vaccines, according to health experts at Yale Medicine. Data still shows vaccinated and boosted individuals are less likely to contract severe illness from COVID-19, according to the CDC. Guidelines recommend those who are immunocompromised or are older than 65 get two booster shots.

Most recent numbers show 49.5% of Cape Girardeau County residents and 84.6% of those older than 65 are fully vaccinated and, according to the CDC.

BA.5 has not been shown to be as severe as previous variants, according to most recent available statistics from CDC and World Health Organization. The increased transmissibility is still linked to dramatic upticks in hospitalizations in the U.S. and Europe, but has thus far not correlated with dramatic increases in intensive-care patients.