A week after Thanksgiving, officials at Freeman Health System in Joplin are reporting a slight increase in the number of COVID-19 cases. KRPS’s Fred Fletcher-Fierro has more.

This time last week, the hospital system reported a total of 13 COVID-19 patients at their Joplin and Neosho, Missouri locations. At a Wednesday morning press briefing, also live-streamed on Freeman’s Facebook page President Paula Baker said the number of COVID patients has increased to 20.

Baker says that she expected to continue to see an increase in COVID patients because of gatherings that took place last week. She took the opportunity to re-enforce the need to get vaccinated or get a booster against the disease. “I would like to take this opportunity to encourage people, we see this, little increase, a lot of those patients are unvaccinated. So the best thing you can do to protect yourself, your families, and your loved ones is to get the vaccine, and to do the booster when it’s recommended. That’s the most important thing you can do.” At previous briefings, Freeman doctors have said that between 85 and 90% of COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated. For 89 9 KRPS, I’m Fred Fletcher-Fierro