Just a little more than a week before Christmas, Freeman Health System in Joplin is reporting almost double the number of COVID patients they had a month ago. KRPS’s Fred Fletcher-Fierro has more.

Freeman held their bi-weekly COVID-19 media briefing Wednesday. President and CEO Paula Baker said that conditions at the hospital were stable, concerning the total of patients that Freeman was caring for. One more ago, the hospital system reported having 13 COVID patients, that number increased to 20 two weeks ago and 23 as of Wednesday. Baker says Freeman officials were expecting an increase during the holiday season. “Well, as expected we’ve had a little bit of an uptick in our COVID hospitalizations, and that is very predictable given the holidays and all the gatherings that are taking place. But today we have 23 (patients). Fortunately, we just have one patient on a vent.”

The Missouri Department of Health will be holding free COVID-19 testing today in Joplin from 10:00 am until 6:00 pm at the Joseph Newman Innovation Center North Parking Lot 407 Pennsylvania Ave, located across the street from the Joplin Health Department. Testing is free, there’s no registration or government-issued ID required. For more information visit, health.mo.gov/communitytest For 89 9 KRPS, I’m Fred Fletcher-Fierro