ST. LOUIS  — St. Louis County Executive Sam Page says the county has hit a milestone in its fight against COVID and in a few weeks the county may be able to talk about lifting the mask mandate.

 

"Stay with us, we are almost there," said Sam Page during a morning COVID briefing.

What You Need To Know

  • St. Louis County leading state in vaccination rate with 70%

  • COVID cases and hospitalizations are dropping

  • St. Louis County could discuss lifting mask mandate if COVID cases continue to fall

  • CDC says St. Louis County is at high threshold for transmission

 

Page shared not only is the county leading the state in its vaccination rate but COVID cases and hospitalizations are dropping in the area. 

 

Data from the state shows 70% of St. Louis County residents have initiated the vaccination process. When it comes to completing vaccination, St. Louis County is at 61.8%. 

 

The entire state of Missouri has seen 62.9% of its population initiate vaccination with 55.7% completing the process. 

 

Page credits the expansion of testing, the steady rise in vaccination rates and mitigation efforts to a drop in COVID cases and hospitalizations. 

 

He also says while other areas across the country have been removing mask mandates he says St. Louis County is not there just yet. 

 

Page says the county is still considered to have "high" transmission according to the CDC. According to the CDC's site, so is the entire state of Missouri and most of the United States.

 

High transmission is more than 100 new cases per 100,000 in the past 7 days and a positivity rate of more than 10%. Page said county officials would like to be in the CDC's "moderate" range which is 50 new cases per 100,000 in the past 7 days and a positivity rate of 8%.

 

Page says he and other officials need to keep an eye on the virus for a few more weeks before they can start talking about moving from a mask requirement to recommending one in crowded, indoor spaces. 

 

He also said the county is in communication with St. Louis City about masking policies. St. Louis City has a mask mandate in effect until March 8.

 

Page said while the omicron variant is not as threatening it has been more transmissible. 

 

"We don't want to take any premature steps that would jeopardize hospitals or prevent children from staying in the classroom," explained Page. 

 

St. Louis County has had 3,071 COVID-related deaths during the pandemic. Page says the county's mitigation efforts are working and believes that number would have been higher if they didn't act when they did. 

 

You can get information about getting a COVID vaccine in St. Louis by heading to St. Louis County's COVID information section on its website.