Fourth Of July Raises Worries As Vaccination Efforts Gear Up

KBIA | By Associated Press

Published July 2, 2021 at 7:32 AM CDT

Health officials working to boost lagging COVID-19 vaccination rates in Missouri are growing anxious as the Fourth of July weekend approaches, creating ripe conditions for the fast-spreading delta variant to send hospital numbers climbing.

In the Branson area, Taney County health director Lisa Marshall says officials "are keeping an eye to see what is going to happen." Missouri is second only to Nevada for having the worst diagnosis rate over the past week.

And data from Johns Hopkins University shows that Missouri's seven-day rolling average of daily new cases has jumped over the past two weeks from 576.14 new cases per day on June 15 to 891.71 on Tuesday.

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