Missouri Auditor Galloway joins calls for Gov. Parson to issue stay-at-home order
Democratic state Auditor Nicole Galloway is calling on Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to issue a statewide stay-at-home order to help combat the spread of COVID-19.
Galloway is the likely Democratic nominee to take on Parson, a Republican, in November.
“A statewide stay-at-home order is necessary because we have a limited window to take steps that will lessen the surge on our healthcare system and that window is closing rapidly. Continuing to wait only delays the inevitable.” Galloway said in a statement Tuesday. “Failure to address the immediate threat to public health will undermine our economic recovery.”
Parson dismissed Galloway’s call during his daily briefing on Tuesday.
“I would say the state auditor needs to worry about being the state auditor right now,” Parson said. “This is not the time to play politics.”
She joins a long list of health care organizations — Missouri State Medical Association, Missouri Nurses Association, the Association of Missouri Nurse Practitioners, the Missouri Association of Nurse Anesthetists and the Missouri Center for Public Health Excellence — who have called on Parson to take statewide action in recent weeks.
Parson has also been urged to issue a statewide order by local officials around the state, including Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann and public health directors from urban and rural communities.
Thus far, Parson has refused to heed their call, arguing that a one-size-fits all approach won’t work in Missouri.
“Everybody has a different version of what we should do on a stay-at-home order for the state of Missouri,” Parson said Monday. “Again, we have to evaluate the whole state and have to look at it county by county and what is happening in those counties.”
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, issued a stay-at-home order over the weekend. Kansans are directed under the order to stay home unless performing an essential activity, such as obtaining food or medicine.
A huge swath of the state is covered by local stay-at-home orders, including Kansas City and Jackson County.
Parson has defended his position, citing his executive order prohibiting gatherings of more than 10 people.
He has also encouraged Missourians to abide by any local stay-at-home order that has been put in place, emphasizing personal responsibility as the only way the state will overcome the outbreak.
“This is the only way we will stop the spread of COVID-19,” he said Monday. “Please, stay at home.”
There have been 1,327 positive COVID-19 tests in Missouri, along with 14 deaths.
Senate Majority Leader Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, told St. Louis Public Radio that a stay-at-home order “may very well be or have been appropriate for the state as a whole.”
“I understand his reasoning for not doing it. The urban-rural kind of realities are what they are in Missouri,” he said. “We have to be mindful of what, if there is a massive surge in rural Missouri or parts of rural Missouri, what that means for hospitals in the urban areas.”
This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 2:17 PM.
