Heartland COVID-19 update

(KFVS) - An updated look at the COVID-19 pandemic in the Heartland, as of Friday, August 5.

Health officials in Missouri reported about 11,000 new cases this week. That’s down from nearly 13,000 cases the week before.

Officials say the highly contagious B-A5 variant makes up 69 percent of all new cases.

In Illinois, the state health department reported nearly 31,000 new cases. That’s down from more than 35,000 the week before.

Illinois is currently averaging about 4,400 new cases per day.

In Kentucky, there were more than 16,000 new COVID-19 cases, and the positivity rate was just below 18 percent.

Both of those numbers were down compared to the week before.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly every county in all of the Heartland states remain in the “high” community level.