Butler County health officials announced three new positive tests for COVID-19 on Wednesday, the seventh straight day with a new case.
Emily Goodin, administrator of the Butler County Health Department, said outside of some family members and a few coworkers, there are no clusters of the virus being found through testing.
Goodin said during a weekly briefing of county officials Wednesday that her department has tested over 200 people. The rapid test, which takes 15 minutes to process, is currently not available, she said, but testing is still being done daily to any Missouri resident free of charge.
Starting in July, Goodin said, testing will be done twice a week at the health department with details to be announced soon.
There have been 30 new cases in the county over the last 10 days, the largest increase since the start coronavirus pandemic at the end of March. Butler County has confirmed 84 total cases of COVID-19 in all.
Ripley County also announced a new positive test for a second straight day. There have been 16 total confirmed cases in that county with five active cases.
Statewide, Missouri saw 291 new cases Wednesday as the seven-day averaged reached a new high of 320.
There were nine more deaths associated with the virus, bringing the total to 975.
State health officials report that 5.6% of all patients tested are coming back positive. There have been 18,868 confirmed cases statewide with an increase of nearly 9% over the last week.
Butler County has seen a 24% jump in cases during that same period of time.
Common symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough, trouble breathing, sore throat, muscle pain and a loss of taste or smell. Most people develop only mild symptoms, but some people, especially those with other medical issues, develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia.
MEAL PROGRAM
The Poplar Bluff R-1 meal program has delivered nearly 453,000 meals, said Chris Rushin of the Boys & Girls Club of Poplar Bluff.
Meals will continue to be delivered and available through June 30.
A free breakfast and lunch will be available during summer school, which starts July 6.