2 min to read Joplin's COVID-19 status is improving and the number of people in hospitals because of the virus is dropping, the City Council was told Monday night. Dan Pekarek, assistant city manager and former city health department director, said the the city's seven-day average of cases per day is hovering in the low 30s. That is down from 52 around the time the council reinstated a mask mandate Nov. 19. "We're happy it dropped that much," he said. "It kind of stabilized" in the low 30s, and that is one of the metrics health authorities are watching. The 14-day number of cases per 100,000 people has dropped below 1,000. "We are happy about that," Pekarek said. "We are down to 924 case rate per 100,000. Again, that's good news. We'd like to keep it below 1,000."