The number of Callaway County deaths due to COVID-19 reported on the CallawayCOVID19.com website jumped from 12 to 16 on Tuesday, with an additional death appearing Thursday.
Callaway County Health Department Executive Director Sharon Lynch clarified during a phone call Friday the five deaths aren't actually new.
Four of the deaths were recently reported to the county by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
"You can get a bunch at once from the state," Lynch said.
A fifth deceased individual, spotted by CCHD on a list of deaths in a different county, was described by Lynch as "a lifelong Callaway County resident that was not here when he passed."
"I felt like he needed to be included," Lynch said.
Three of the five deaths occurred in November, Lynch said. The county doesn't have a date for the other two.
DHSS's COVID-19 dashboard shows only 11 deaths for Callaway County, though the state's death count for Callaway County has lagged behind the county's for the majority of the pandemic. The state's data also trails behind county data for neighboring Boone County - its health department reports 30 deaths, while DHSS shows only 25.
"If someone comes in here for a death certificate, and we print those, and COVID is listed on the death certificate, we go ahead and add the name because it can take a while for that death to work through the state system and for us to get it officially from the state," Lynch said.
Overall, COVID-19 cases continue to climb in Callaway County. According to DHSS, 3,019 Callaway County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since March. As of Thursday, 651 cases of the disease were active in the county, according to the Callaway County Health Department, plus nearly 200 more at the Fulton Reception and Diagnostic Center and additional 16 at the Fulton State Hospital.
By Friday, the number of active cases had risen to 692, excluding the FRDC and FSH, Lynch said.
Callaway County's seven-day positivity rate (determined by dividing the number of positive tests by the total number of tests administered over a seven-day span) stands at 17.7 percent.
Though CCHD doesn't provide a city-by-city breakdown of cases' location, several entities within Callaway County report their own data.
The Missouri Department of Corrections-run Fulton Reception and Diagnostic Center reported 10 active cases among staff and 190 active cases among offenders - by far the most active cases at any state DOC facility. The MoDOC's COVID-19 data website doesn't appear to have updated in several days.
William Woods University in Fulton reported one active case among staff when its site was last updated Tuesday.
As of Friday, Fulton Public Schools had 30 active cases among students and staff; an additional 203 people were quarantined due to potential exposure. North Callaway R-1 in Auxvasse had 14 active cases as of Thursday. New Bloomfield R-3 had no cases. South Callaway R-2 in Mokane no longer reports its own cases, but according to DHSS, the district has reported between one and 10 new cases over the last 14 days.