One week after the mask mandate was lifted in Joplin, new Covid-19 cases remain steady. K R P S’s Fred Fletcher-Fierro has more.

With spring near, the number of people out and about has increased, but that hasn’t translated into a rise of new Covid-19 cases. As of Saturday, the Joplin Health Department reported an average of 6-new cases per day and a decline of nearly 9 percent in the number of new Covid cases over the past two weeks. The city is approaching 5,900 confirmed Covid-cases since the virus arrived in the area a year ago. Also, 124 people have died of Covid in Joplin. The number of vaccinated Missouri residents continues to rise. As of yesterday, over 1.5 million vaccine doses have been administered in Missouri for a total of 16.3 percent of the state’s total population having received one or both of the vaccine shots. To view a detailed breakdown of who has received the vaccine and and where visit, CovidVaccine.mo.gov.