Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services

The Missouri Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling ordering the state to pay the legal fees for Reclaim the Records.

The Missouri health department has acknowledged that it has used national data to estimate Missouri’s racial breakdown, rather than data based on the state's population. That information has been a source of frustration for local health officials working to ensure that vaccine distribution is equitable. State officials now plan to use 2019 U.S. Census data from Missouri but say some parts of the data remain problematic.

Recent changes have caused drastic swings in the vaccination rates on Missouri's COVID-19 dashboard.

New guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are permitting indoor visits in nursing homes. Missouri health officials are following federal guidelines in new recommendations for nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

Though Missouri has been vaccinating seniors for months, nearly half haven't received COVID-19 shots.

For weeks, Missouri data showed the state was vaccinating large numbers of multiracial residents against the coronavirus, suggesting that more than a third had received doses. However, on Wednesday, new information from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services revealed that the earlier data is likely inaccurate because it overcounts residents who identify as being of two or more races.

All unused doses were sent to other vaccine providers in the area, state health officials said

In some rural counties, health agencies mistakenly doled out vaccines that were intended to be booster shots

Thousands of patients in the region are still scrambling to get the coveted coronavirus vaccine. Missouri has one of the lowest coronavirus vaccination rollouts in the country. As of this week, 6% of the state's 6 million residents have received their first dose of the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Missouri has given the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine to about 262,000 people, or 4% of the state's 6 million residents, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s the lowest percentage of all 50 states, and at that pace, Missouri won’t fully vaccinate its population for years.