JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri Governor Mike Parson announced a 'mega' vaccine event at the home of the Kansas City Chiefs that will provide doses to more than 6,000 people over two days.
Two national guard teams will be on hand to administer more than 6,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to people chosen from a list of people already registered with the Jackson County health department. The event will take place on the parking lot of Arrowhead Stadium on Friday, March 19, and Saturday, March 20.
Parson and local leaders encouraged people in the Kansas City area to continue to sign up with local health department as events like this one hopefully become more frequent.
Parson said they are planning a similar 'mega' event in the St. Louis area. More information will be provided when the details are confirmed.
The event is part of the effort to move mass vaccine events to rural areas like St. Louis and Kansas City. Last week, Parson announced the state will start moving more mass vaccination teams to the Kansas City and St. Louis areas to accommodate higher interest, with the goal of eventually having two teams in the Kansas City region and three in St. Louis, he said.
Parson had previously announced that the state will move into Phase 1B-Tier 3 of vaccine distribution on Monday. During Thursday's briefing, he said the state is on track to move into Phase 2 "in the next few weeks" due to increases in vaccine supply.
In Missouri's vaccine plan, Phase 2 is titled "Equity and Economic Recovery", and it's aim is "protecting those who have been disproportionately affected and accelerating economic recovery." For a full list of who is included, click here.
Missouri's health director, Dr. Randall Willams, said he didn't want to get into specifics, but the state expects an increase in the number of J&J vaccines in the state. Dr. Williams said he had a conversation with General Gustave Perna — the chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed — who said the number of J&J vaccines provided to the state is going to get a boost.
"My message to you, and my message to everyone, is in April, there is going to be a much-increased pipeline for the vaccine," Dr. Williams said.
As vaccine rollout continues, Parson said other COVID-19 numbers are also improving. Thursday was the first day the state reported fewer than 900 COVID-19 hospitalizations across the state since early September of 2020.
Parson said consumer spending in the state has returned to a pre-pandemic level, and 70% of jobs recovered.
Missouri's health director, Dr. Randall Willams, said even after receiving a complete vaccination, Missourians should continue to use mitigation efforts like social distancing and mask-wearing.
"At this moment in time, especially for this month of March, we still encourage people to wash their hands, social distance and if you cant social distance, wear a mask," Dr. Williams said. "Just keep doing those things that have gotten us to where we are."
The state's health department reported 482,224 cases and 8,300 deaths as of Thursday, a single-day increase of 530 cases and three deaths.
New case numbers have decreased significantly from the peak in late 2020, when thousands of new cases were reported every day.
The department also reported 4,620,674 PCR tests as of Thursday, an increase of 20,599 tests in the last 24 hours.
The seven-day positivity rate reported on Thursday was 4.5%, a slight increase from previous days, but down significantly from the peak of over 25% in November.
According to the CDC, 1,724,580 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Thursday, a single-day increase of 39,218 doses. The CDC says 17.7% of people in the state have received at least one dose of the vaccine — up from 17.3% yesterday — and 9.5% of people are fully vaccinated — up from 9.2% yesterday.
In the St. Louis area, COVID-19 hospital numbers remained mostly unchanged Thursday. Those numbers have also improved significantly over the last few months.
The following data are the combined figures from the four major health systems (BJC HealthCare, Mercy, SSM Health, St. Luke’s Hospital) that are part of the task force, for March 11.
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased - from 39 yesterday to 42 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased – from 36* yesterday to 37 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations decreased – from 231 yesterday to 229 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations increased - from 220 yesterday to 226 today.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations decreased – from 38 yesterday to 24 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs remained the same today at 63.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators increased – from 39 yesterday to 42 today.
- The number of COVID deaths increased – from 3 yesterday to 6 today.
- The seven-day moving average of COVID deaths remains the same at 5 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 43 COVID-19 patients were discharged to home yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 19,814.
- Today, staffed bed hospital capacity is at 83%, an average across our task force hospitals. The ICU’s are at 87% of their total staffed bed capacity.
*Some delays in test results changed admissions data. Those changes are listed below:
- 3/4/2021 | Admissions - 30 | 7-day average - 32
- 3/5/2021 | Admissions - 40 | 7-day average - 33
- 3/6/2021 | Admissions - 46 | 7-day average - 35
- 3/7/2021 | Admissions - 34 | 7-day average - 34
- 3/8/2021 | Admissions - 28 | 7-day average - 33
- 3/9/2021 | Admissions - 33 | 7-day average - 33
- 3/10/2021 | Admissions - 39 | 7-day average - 36
- 3/11/2021 | Admissions - 42 | 7-day average - 37