A Missouri town has nation’s highest daily growth rate for coronavirus, data show

The area in and around Joplin, Missouri, averaged the highest daily growth rate of coronavirus cases in the nation over seven days, according to data from the Dartmouth Atlas Project.

The Joplin area, located about 160 miles south of Kansas City, saw an average 11.9% increase in cases a day over a seven-day period which ended June 18, data showed.

Tyler, San Angelo and McAllen, Texas, followed by Charleston, South Carolina, rounded out the top five, according to data.

Joplin has 198 cases per 100,000 residents, the project shows.

The population of Joplin was nearly 51,000 on July 1, 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Dartmouth Atlas Project documents variations in the distribution of medical resources across the country.

Its daily coronavirus growth rate map displays data for each of the nation’s 306 hospital referral regions, according to the project. Dartmouth Atlas Project makes its analyses using county-level case data compiled by the New York Times then groups the data by hospital referral region.

The data should not be used to assume future growth rates as it’s based on the prior seven days, according to the project.

Joplin’s hospital referral region includes portions of southwest Missouri, southeast Kansas and northeast Oklahoma, the Joplin Globe reported.

The city of Joplin straddles the line between Jasper and Newton counties. Health agencies from the three jurisdictions reported a combined 511 coronavirus cases as of Friday, according to the Globe.

Spring River Christian Village, an assisted living facility in Joplin, announced 31 positive cases related to the facility on Friday, according to a news release obtained by KSNF.

Of the positive cases, 22 are residents and nine are associates, with the majority being asymptomatic, according to the facility.

The same day, the New York Times named Joplin as one of several areas where an outbreak could occur next, adding that cases in Joplin double every 6.5 days.

Officials say the Times’ numbers include cases from surrounding areas.

“Just knowing the increase in the number of cases that we’ve seen as Joplin, Jasper, Newton, McDonald, this whole region in here going into Southeast Kansas and Oklahoma, as well, I’m not surprised by it,” Ryan Talken of the Joplin Health Department told KOAM. “Our workload in the last couple weeks has just exploded.”

He added that contact tracing has led to a number of positive tests.

“As we have more cases, contacts spin off of those cases and so those contacts end up getting tested, testing those contacts that were exposed, a lot of those are coming back positive,” Talken told the outlet.