rest of the state follows current trajectories — with delta systematically picking off localized pockets of unvaccinated missourians — our entire health care system will be very near the brink it flirted with during the winter of 2020-2021. march on march 30, 2022, missouri governor mike parson announced the missouri will move on into the endemic phase for covid-19. government response governor mike parson declared a state of emergency on march 13, 2020. the national park service closed the gateway arch and the associated museum beginning march 18 until further notice. by march 19, all 555 school districts in missouri reported some form of district-wide school closures. many of the school districts were initially closed until at least april 3. both st. louis city and st. louis county issued a stay-at-home order effective monday, march 23. various city and county ordinances were enacted in several areas of the state. at the end of march, governor parson announced no plans to issue a stay-at-home order. however, on april 3, the state's chief executive issued an official stay-at-home order that would be in effect for missouri from april 6 until april 24, 2020. the order stated missouri residents should avoid leaving their homes unless necessary, giving authorization only to do so for essential activities, essential business, or essential travel with detailed guidelines. on april 16, governor parson extended the stay-at-home order until may 3. on april 22, attorney general eric schmitt filed a lawsuit in u.s. federal court against the chinese government. the lawsuit, considered the first of its kind, said, "chinese authorities deceived the public, suppressed crucial information, arrested whistleblowers, denied human-to-human transmission in the face of mounting evidence, destroyed critical medical research, permitted millions of people to be exposed to the virus, and even hoarded personal protective equipment—thus causing a global pandemic that was unnecessary and preventable." due to the chinese government's sovereign immunity, it will be difficult for the lawsuit to succeed, according to legal experts. school reopenings in late-august, there were protests in kansas city for and against resumption of in-person classes. most school districts in kansas city had plans for online only instruction, except in independence where teachers were told they had to resume teaching in-person classes or opt-out without pay. teachers have expressed fears that the classrooms are too small for social distancing and that there were no protocols in place for the classrooms to be cleaned between classes. parents in other districts protested against online classes citing concerns about depression and increased drug use. governor mike parson has said the decisions on what format classes will follow, whether in person or online, will be made by school districts. betsy devos has told public school districts that they wouldn't receive federal money unless schools are fully reopened for the 2020–21 school year. since early-august, teachers have been protesting the decision to reopen schools while the numbers of infected are still rising. state officials estimate that one out of five students don't have the broadband access needed for online learning. despite court decisions reaffirming parents rights to access the missouri course access and virtual school program (mocap), some districts were still not informing parents of their rights to access the 10 established virtual education providers through mocap. districts are legally required to feature the mocap program on their websites and families have the right to choose from any of the mocap providers, but the statute doesn't specify a penalty for non-compliance with its requirements. an eighth grader in franklin county died on november 2. the 13-year-old, who last attended in-person classes on october 22, was the youngest missourian to die from the virus up to that point. on november 12, 2020, governor parson announced a new change on guidelines for quarantine in k-12 schools. the new guidelines say that if a person comes into contact with another who tested positive for covid-19, they must quarantine unless they were wearing a mask. vaccine hesistancy as hospitals neared capacity in july 2021 amid rising fears that the spread of the delta variant could exceed winter hospitalization numbers state and federal officials urged vaccination. white house officials and others have noted that federal door-to-door efforts would not be effective in missouri, but encouraged local community leaders to perform outreach efforts in their communities. anthony fauci noted the urgency of vaccination efforts: "if we continue to allow the virus to freely circulate like it seems to be doing in missouri, you're giving that virus an opportunity mutate enough to really become a problem". demographics in september, npr reported that african americans and latin americans were dying at nearly three times the rate of white americans in kansas city. statistics by county covid-19 pandemic medical cases in missouri by county county cases deaths population cases / 100k 115 / 115 1,790,515 22,931 6,137,428 29,173.7 adair 6,782 71 25,343 26,760.8 andrew 5,716 66 17,712 32,271.9 atchison 1,823 24 5,143 35,446.2 audrain 6,932 125 25,388 27,304.2 barry 8,034 153 35,789 22,448.2 barton 3,421 56 11,754 29,105.0 bates 4,491 103 16,172 27,770.2 benton 5,543 115 19,443 28,509.0 bollinger 3,316 50 12,133 27,330.4 boone 54,093 304 180,463 29,974.6 buchanan 30,035 351 87,364 34,379.1 butler 12,592 187 42,478 29,643.6 caldwell 2,114 44 9,020 23,436.8 callaway 14,554 149 44,743 32,528.0 camden 10,980 197 46,305 23,712.3 cape girardeau 23,723 279 78,871 30,078.2 carroll 2,715 48 8,679 31,282.4 carter 1,772 24 5,982 29,622.2 cass 30,552 352 105,780 28,882.6 cedar 3,859 61 14,349 26,893.9 chariton 2,054 43 7,426 27,659.6 christian 25,274 297 88,595 28,527.6 clark 1,936 50 6,797 28,483.2 clay 33,911 416 121,317 27,952.4 clinton 5,809 132 20,387 28,493.6 cole 24,468 308 76,745 31,882.2 cooper 4,826 82 17,709 27,251.7 crawford 6,653 117 23,920 27,813.5 dade 1,848 50 7,561 24,441.2 dallas 4,749 83 16,878 28,137.2 daviess 2,047 32 8,278 24,728.2 dekalb 2,658 52 12,547 21,184.3 dent 3,998 93 15,573 25,672.6 douglas 3,095 89 13,185 23,473.6 dunklin 9,790 143 29,131 33,606.8 franklin 31,900 419 103,967 30,682.8 gasconade 4,139 116 14,706 28,145.0 gentry 2,636 37 6,571 40,115.7 greene 86,266 1,177 293,086 29,433.7 grundy 3,177 76 9,850 32,253.8 harrison 2,483 36 8,352 29,729.4 henry 7,145 96 21,824 32,739.2 hickory 2,446 59 9,544 25,628.7 holt 1,321 34 4,403 30,002.3 howard 2,988 39 10,001 29,877.0 howell 11,159 234 40,117 27,816.1 independence 36,924 495 116,672 31,647.7 iron 2,713 53 10,125 26,795.1 jackson 82,605 891 266,558 30,989.5 jasper 24,653 350 76,489 32,230.8 jefferson 68,691 762 225,081 30,518.3 johnson 14,899 154 54,062 27,559.1 joplin 16,712 241 50,924 32,817.5 kansas city 141,362 1,364 495,377 28,536.2 knox 1,217 16 3,959 30,740.1 laclede 9,739 197 35,723 27,262.5 lafayette 9,322 151 32,708 28,500.7 lawrence 9,445 190 38,355 24,625.2 lewis 3,452 48 9,776 35,311.0 lincoln 18,715 164 59,013 31,713.4 linn 3,173 80 11,920 26,619.1 livingston 4,503 109 15,227 29,572.5 macon 4,311 69 15,117 28,517.6 madison 4,352 60 12,088 36,002.6 maries 1,984 42 8,697 22,812.5 marion 9,935 137 28,530 34,823.0 mcdonald 6,250 80 22,837 27,367.9 mercer 912 17 3,617 25,214.3 miller 7,160 129 25,619 27,948.0 mississippi 4,470 66 13,180 33,915.0 moniteau 4,437 61 16,132 27,504.3 monroe 2,524 52 8,644 29,199.4 montgomery 3,142 63 11,551 27,201.1 morgan 4,987 129 20,627 24,177.0 new madrid 6,164 96 17,076 36,097.4 newton 13,967 224 52,151 26,781.8 nodaway 7,335 51 22,092 33,202.1 oregon 2,526 42 10,529 23,990.9 osage 3,836 52 13,615 28,174.8 ozark 2,051 64 9,174 22,356.7 pemiscot 3,930 86 15,805 24,865.5 perry 6,402 52 19,136 33,455.3 pettis 15,065 191 42,339 35,581.9 phelps 13,043 265 44,573 29,262.1 pike 5,297 65 18,302 28,942.2 platte 12,932 108 57,453 22,508.8 polk 10,045 122 32,149 31,245.1 pulaski 10,878 138 52,607 20,677.9 putnam 1,182 26 4,696 25,170.4 ralls 2,989 30 10,309 28,994.1 randolph 7,232 118 24,748 29,222.6 ray 6,268 102 23,018 27,230.9 reynolds 1,406 27 6,270 22,424.2 ripley 3,234 71 13,288 24,337.7 saline 7,274 123 22,761 31,958.2 schuyler 896 26 4,660 19,227.5 scotland 847 20 4,902 17,278.7 scott 14,031 172 38,280 36,653.6 shannon 1,928 43 8,166 23,610.1 shelby 2,101 18 5,930 35,430.0 st. charles 121,405 1,073 402,022 30,198.6 st. clair 2,636 47 9,397 28,051.5 st. francois 23,857 333 67,215 35,493.6 st. louis (county) 292,797 3,586 994,205 29,450.4 st. louis city 77,291 878 300,576 25,714.3 ste. genevieve 4,914 42 17,894 27,461.7 stoddard 7,256 152 29,025 24,999.1 stone 7,050 137 31,952 22,064.3 sullivan 2,058 29 6,089 33,798.7 taney 16,235 255 55,928 29,028.4 texas 5,727 114 25,398 22,549.0 vernon 6,192 116 20,563 30,112.3 warren 10,057 119 35,649 28,211.2 washington 7,131 156 24,730 28,835.4 wayne 2,995 58 12,873 23,265.8 webster 10,437 165 39,592 26,361.4 worth 563 5 2,013 27,968.2 wright 4,643 95 18,289 25,386.8 updated may 9, 2023, with data through the previous sundaydata is publicly reported bymissouri department of health and senior services county where individuals with a positive case reside. location of diagnosis and treatment may vary. reported confirmed and probable cases. actual case numbers are probably higher. july 2019 population estimate from "u.s. census bureau quick facts: missouri". united states census bureau. retrieved june 8, 2020. independence is within jackson county. joplin spans across jasper and newton counties. kansas city spans across jackson, platte, cass and clay counties. independent city and not within limits of a county.