JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Although COVID-19 positivity rates continue to decline in Missouri, the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) plans to continue its precautions due to the unpredictability of emerging variants.
Through its Coronavirus Sewershed Surveillance Project, the department found the COVID-19 UK variant in various locations throughout the state.
“While Missouri has only one confirmed case of a patient with the UK variant, we understand this variant is more widespread in the United States and Missouri than detected by clinical and sentinel testing,” said DHSS Director Dr. Randall Williams. “We want to reiterate just the importance of washing your hands and using masks if you can’t social distance as more variants are detected. We hope all Missourians will consider being vaccinated as vaccines become more available.”
To enhance the public health surveillance of such virus variants Missouri healthcare providers can submit specimens from eligible individuals to the Missouri State Public Health Laboratory.
“We are fortunate that we are now able to implement these sequencing capabilities right here in our laboratory,” said Bill Whitmar, director of the Missouri State Public Health Laboratory. “In collaboration with our partners, this timely surveillance will help allow us earlier detection of emerging variants.”
DHSS recommends all individuals to continue wearing a mask, using good handwashing, maintaining physical distance from others outside their household, and staying home if they feel ill. This includes people who have been vaccinated for COVID-19.
For more information, visit the sewershed surveillance team’s storymap. The storymap contains an interactive map displaying sewershed trends and identifying those found to have a significant increase in the viral particles measured. The interactive map also identifies sewersheds with little to no change in the trend but remain elevated.