The deaths data, which the department calls “probable” COVID-19 fatalities, is being added eight months after the department began reporting antigen-identified infections in its daily report (image courtesy of CDC).
In an effort to reduce student population in the Columbia region during a surge of COVID-19 cases, the University of Missouri announced Thursday that classes would be moved online after Thanksgiving break.
“While our experts say that MU students have not presented a direct burden to the local hospitals because they have not needed hospitalization, we are all members of the broader community,” Mun Choi, chanceller and UM system president, said in a statement. “And as the community strives to gain control of the virus, a temporary thinning of the student population is helpful.”
The university said its Columbia campus has had an 80 percent decrease in student cases since Labor Day, when cases peaked.
The Department of Health and Senior Services reported this morning a record 4,603 new infections across the state, the third consecutive day of more than 4,000 new cases and the fifth time in the last six days.
The new cases reported Thursday pushed the seven-day average of reported cases above 4,000 per day for the first time, to 4,113.6 per day. The seven-day average was 2,291 per day on Nov. 1 and 1,057 per day on Oct. 1.
Meanwhile, three hospitals in Columbia launched a new color-coded system Tuesday for warning the community when stress from a rising number of COVID-19 patients makes it difficult to take additional patients or provide care for other ailments.
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