KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The death toll from COVID-19 in Missouri has topped 10,000, according to the state health department's coronavirus dashboard Thursday.
The dashboard showed 20 new deaths, bringing the total to 10,002 since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020. Nationally, more than 615,000 Americans have died from the virus.
Deaths have been rising again in recent weeks due to the delta variant, and it has been especially troubling in southwestern Missouri. The Springfield-Greene County Health Department said Wednesday that 82 people died in Greene County alone between July 1 and Aug. 10.
New cases and hospitalizations also are at their worst levels since the winter.
The state dashboard on Thursday also showed 2,675 new cases and a seven-day average of 2,013 confirmed cases. Hospitalizations are at their highest level since January and rose by 68 to 2,268. Intensive care unit space in Missouri hospitals is at 17% - and 14% in the St. Louis area.
