Coronavirus

With the St. Louis County indoor mask mandate in dispute, business owners are left wondering how to proceed.

Public health experts believe that vaccine hesitancy and refusal are largely to blame for the proliferance of the delta variant and that coronavirus infection rates will continue to increase if vaccination rates remain stagnant.

The Missouri Attorney General’s filing mixes state and local COVID case counts and death counts in comparisons, among other errors.

Some St. Louis County Council members say a mask mandate is not necessary. Others say County Executive Sam Page should have let the council decide whether to require people age 5 and older to wear masks in indoor public spaces.

After months of being able to go mask-free, people in St. Louis and St. Louis County will be required to wear masks indoors to keep the coronavirus from spreading — even if they've gotten the COVID-19 vaccine.

The mandate goes into effect Monday and applies to everyone over the age of 5, including those who have received the COVID-19 vaccine.

Marjorie Moore, executive director of VOYCE, a nonprofit that advocates for nursing home residents, said the facilities are trying to keep residents and workers safe as infections rise.

Representative Bill Kidd joked that he didn’t get a vaccine because he’s a Republican. Now he has COVID.

Two health care workers saw the COVID-19 disease ravage St. Louis patients. But they needed time, information and a push before deciding to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Statewide initiatives to ramp up vaccinations are mounting as Missouri sees its highest rate of new daily COVID-19 cases since January.