Cases rising in Clinton Co. as Delta Variant Takes Reigns

As Missouri becomes the nation’s cautionary tale for the delta variant of the COVID-19 virus, the impact is starting to show itself in Clinton County.

Clinton County Health Department Administrator Blair Shock said that the country has seen a big uptick in cases, from about 10 new cases a week up to 30 new cases per week recently. Shock said it’s likely all new cases locally are the delta variant, as it is the most common form of the virus in Northwest Missouri, and all of the variant reports for the country in the last month have been delta.

“As we have seen cases trend upward again, we have seen a significant increase in hospitalizations, and we will unfortunately see an increase in deaths in the next few weeks,” Shock said. “These are nearly 100-percent preventable. Persons who are vaccinated are very unlikely to contract COVID, and if they do, they are even less likely to be hospitalized or die. In the U.S., we have administered well over 300 million vaccinations. It has proven to be safe and effective. Please get vaccinated.”

​In the past seven days, Clinton County has ranked 36th in the state out of 114 counties for the number of new cases, and just 67th in case volume since the beginning of the pandemic in February 2020. Clinton County remains third in the state for deaths per capita, with more than 60 total deaths (the majority of which came last fall in long-term care facilities). Clinton County, for much of the past year, has been Missouri’s deadliest county for COVID.