JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported 304 new COVID-19 cases and 44 additional deaths on Friday.
The additional cases bring the state’s total to 6,625 cases and 262 deaths.
All week the state has reported fewer than 200 new cases each day. On Friday, health department officials explained the large increase in cases and deaths was due to a technical difficulty at a private lab. Here’s the full statement from the state:
Important Update: Due to a technical difficulty identified and corrected yesterday, results from one commercial lab performing tests for Missourians were not submitted from April 16-22. So many of the cases identified as “new” today were actually tested and diagnosed during those dates, so today’s increase in totals is not due to a spike in new cases being identified within the past 24 to 48 hours.
Additionally, there was a delay in the reporting of a number of deaths from a jurisdiction into the Missouri tracking system. So, in addition to the past 24 hours, the increase today covers some deaths that occurred from April 12-22.
About half of those deaths that were unreported to the state were already known and reported by the City of St. Louis health department.
The numbers reported by the state health department did not include eight deaths and about 121 cases in the St. Louis area, which brought the totals to 6,746 cases and 270 deaths in Missouri.
The state health department said St. Louis County accounts for 121 deaths of the deaths in the state, which is four more than St. Louis County reported Friday morning. That’s also an increase of 16 deaths from Thursday.
The state is reporting 48 deaths in the City of St. Louis.
Overall, the St. Louis area accounts for 4,672 confirmed coronavirus cases and 214 deaths.
The age breakdown for state-reported cases is:
- Under 20 173
- 20-24 393
- 25-29 464
- 30-34 420
- 35-39 428
- 40-44 463
- 45-49 564
- 50-54 614
- 55-59 653
- 60-64 640
- 65-69 481
- 70-74 378
- 75-79 309
- 80+ 635
- Unknown 10
The age breakdown for state-reported deaths is:
- Under 20 0
- 20-29 0
- 30-39 3
- 40-49 6
- 50-59 27
- 60-69 56
- 70-79 70
- 80+ 100
For a full county-by-county breakdown, use our interactive map: