“The hospitals in Randolph County are reporting an increase in census, emergency room visits and COVID like illnesses leading to an increase in testing,” noted Randolph County Health Department Administrator Angela Oathout in her report on Aug. 6. “The hospitals are having difficulty transferring patients to higher acuity hospitals in Belleville or St. Louis due to the lack of available hospital beds.”
Oathout’s report also showed a huge jump in cases. On Aug. 4, there were 63 reported active cases in the county, but by Aug. 6 the number of active cases had increased to 110. She added that there were 69 new cases just for Thursday and Friday last week.
By Aug. 9, the number of active cases was still high at 108. Oathout noted that there had been 38 new cases reported Saturday through Monday.
She told the Randolph County Board of Commissioners at their Aug. 5 meeting that “COVID is surging again. We are getting 10 to 12 active cases per day.”
For more COVID updates, please see this week’s print edition.