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Jefferson City and Cole County were no better or worse last week in their position among rankings of other Missouri municipalities for new coronavirus case activity, compared to the week before, according to the latest White House Coronavirus Task Force report.
While local areas and Missouri as a whole continue to remain in a "red zone" of particularly dangerous levels of new coronavirus activity, the state improved from the fifth-highest new case rate in the country to the eighth.
The latest federal task force report published by the Center for Public Integrity - dated Sept. 27, and covering the preceding week's developments - also shows that since the report released Sept. 20, there was some small improvement in the percentage of Missouri counties with moderate or high levels of coronavirus transmission.
The latest report shows 71 percent of all counties had moderate or high levels of community transmission, with 42 percent of having high levels of community transmission - the red zone. That was compared to 74 percent and 45 percent in the previous week's report.
Jefferson City still ranked third among metro areas in the state with the highest number of new cases in the last three weeks - though that is now out of 12 metro areas in the red zone instead of 14.
Cole County still ranked fifth - though out of 48 red zone counties, instead of 52.
Columbia and Boone County continued to be listed in the yellow zone - having lower rates of new cases and/or lower test positivity rates.
Columbia remained in second out of seven metro areas in the yellow zone, while Boone County had climbed to second out of 19 counties from third of 17 counties before.
Moving higher in the red zone, Camden County climbed from 11th of 52 counties to ninth of 48 with the highest number of new cases in three weeks.
Callaway and Maries counties showed some significant improvement in case activity.
Callaway County moved from the previous 12th place among red zone counties to seventh among the 19 yellow zone counties.
Maries County moved from 51st of 52 red zone counties to 19th of 19 yellow zone counties.
Miller and Moniteau counties were still in the red zone.
Miller County was 21st of 48 counties, compared to 20th of 52 before.
Moniteau County was 34th of 48 counties, compared to 36th of 52 counties before.
Morgan County was 9th of 19 yellow zone counties, having previously been 12th of 17.
Osage and Gasconade counties were no longer listed at all. Osage had been 47th out of 52 red zone counties, while Gasconade had been 9th of 16 orange counties.
Missouri's overall new case rate in the latest report - 166 new cases per 100,000 people - was an improvement from the previous report's rate of 179 per 100,000.
However, the state's rate was still more than 1.78 times higher than the national average of 93 new cases per 100,000 people.
The task force's latest set of recommendations for Missouri included using on-site inspections of prisons and nursing homes' infection control practices to try to decrease introduction of COVID-19 into those congregate settings.
With Abbott BinaxNOW rapid tests to be distributed in the coming weeks, the task force urged that weekly surveillance plans to be developed to monitor the degree of spread among K-12 teachers; staff of nursing homes, prisons and other congregate living settings; and first responders.
Recommendations also included tips and cautionary tales from other states' experiences.
Of Missouri's neighbor Nebraska, the task force said: "Test positivity and case rates have been sustained at the highest levels during the past four weeks, putting Nebraska in a vulnerable position going into the fall and winter."
For Missouri, the task force recommended mask requirements be instituted in counties with ongoing transmission and that capacity for indoor dining and bars be reduced while outdoor options are expanded.
It also recommended Missouri "use metrics like West Virginia to determine school learning and extracurricular activity options," though no further details were immediately included.