As COVID-19 cases surge in Cole County, so does the number of state employees reporting positive tests.
As of midnight Wednesday, the state had 429 employees with active COVID-19 cases across 67 counties - 129 of those cases are employees who work in Jefferson City, according to data provided by the Office of Administration.
Gov. Mike Parson called all state employees to return to in-person work May 17.
Since then, 1,487 state employees across Missouri's 115 counties have contracted COVID-19.
By June 30, OA Communications Director Chris Moreland said 284 state employees had been infected since being called to return back from remote work.
In total, there have been 9,826 state employees, out of more than 43,000, who have received a positive test since the state began tracking COVID-19 in the spring of 2020, according to data for the Office of Administration.
That's roughly one in five state employees throughout Missouri who have contracted COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.
In Cole County, there have been 11,429 confirmed PCR and probable antigen cases as of Friday morning. The county has had a total of 306 PCR and antigen cases in the past week, with a daily average of 43 cases, according to the Department of Health and Senior Services COVID-19 dashboard.
The state overall has had a total of 716,055 confirmed PCR and probable antigen cases as of Friday, with 18,166 cases PCR and antigen cases in the past week and a daily average of 2,595 cases, according to the DHSS COVID-19 dashboard.
Crystal Wessing, a spokesperson for OA, said at least 35 percent of the state workforce has been vaccinated through state-sponsored events, but the actual number of vaccinated employees could be higher as the department doesn't track vaccinations through doctor offices, pharmacies or other vaccine events.
Around the state, 42.8 percent of Missourians have a complete vaccine, while an additional 7.1 percent have initiated the process with a first dose, according to the DHSS vaccine dashboard.
In Cole County, 31,096 residents - or 40.5 percent of the county population - have the complete vaccine while an additional 4,756 people - 46.7 percent of the county population - have received the first dose.
In addition to regular cleaning and sanitizing procedures in place, wearing a face mask is strongly encouraged, but not required, for state employees while indoors.