There was good and not-so-good news at the Freeman Health System COVID-19 briefing Wednesday. KRPS’s Fred Fletcher-Fierro has more.

First, the good news, the number of new COVID is down considerably from five weeks ago when Freeman held their last update on January 12. At the time, the hospital system reported 35 COVID patients; that number swelled to as many as 54 by the start of this month. Yesterday, Freeman President and CEO Paula Baker said the hospital is caring for ten COVID patients, two on ventilators.

Baker also spoke about the total cost of the pandemic over the past two years. “Just to give you an idea, to date, we have had 409 deaths from COVID here at Freeman. And that is since the very first case two years ago. So that kind of gives you an idea. A lot of lives have been lost from COVID.” Baker also revealed that this month on average, just over one patient per day is dying of the disease at Freeman. She’s continued to urge, as she has for months, for people to get fully vaccinated to have the highest chance of surviving if they become infected. For 89 9 KRPS, I’m Fred Fletcher-Fierro in Webb City