Gov. Parson announces two more Missouri coronavirus cases, declares state of emergency
Update: One of the two cases was in Henry County, health officials announced Saturday. Story here.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson announced two more “presumptive positive” cases of coronavirus in the state, although he provided no details about those cases at a press conference on Friday.
The new cases brings Missouri’s total to four. The state later revealed one of the two new cases was a St. Louis County resident that is in their 50s. The other will be made public as soon as notifications have been made.
At the same time, Parson declared a state of emergency in Missouri, a move he said would provide more flexibility to use resources and deploy them around the state where they are most appropriate.
It would also allow the governor to “waive certain state laws and regulations” as needed to deal with the public health crisis, Parson said.
The declaration, Parson said, is “not intended to close public schools.” Those decisions should be made by local officials.
“Schools should seek the guidance of local health officials when thinking of closing schools,” Parson said, saying he was hoping to set up a meeting with mayors, specifically Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, next week.
Parson also said the declaration should not be taken as indication that the healthcare system is unprepared or overwhelmed.
“We knew this was coming,” he said, “and we are taking every precaution we can.”
On Thursday, Parson announced that a Springfield resident in their 20s who had traveled abroad was the state’s second “presumptive positive” case. The first case was a St. Louis County woman.
Parson said both of those are were “travel related cases,” but would not specify if that is true with the two new cases.
U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, said he’s been in communication with Parson in the lead-up to the emergency declaration and he’s confident about the state’s ability to contain the virus.
“The real response here is going to be at the state level with some federal ability to provide resources,” said Blunt, who oversees the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees health funding.
“I feel good about our ability to respond at the state and local level,” he said. “And hopefully we’ll look at what happened in China and Italy and say what did they do that caused problems.”
Earlier Friday, Parson’s likely Democratic opponent, state Auditor Nicole Galloway, called on the governor to issue an emergency declaration “so that the state can access funds and take additional actions to respond to this growing public health emergency.”
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly declared a state of emergency Thursday following the death of a 70-year-old man in Wyandotte County who was posthumously diagnosed with coronavirus. She said the declaration authorizes the use of state resources and personnel to assist with response and recovery operations in affected counties that meet certain criteria.
Since the first case of coronavirus turned up in St. Louis County earlier this week, Parson’s administration has faced questions about its response. On Friday, the Post-Dispatch reported that a hotline set up so Missourians could seek guidance about the coronavirus does not accept calls from cellphones with out-of-state area codes.
The Star attempted to call the hotline with an Illinois cell phone number and the call could not be completed.
Randall Williams, director of the Department of Health and Senior Services, said the department was surprised by the issue with the hotline and is working to resolve it.
Parson said there have been 94 coronavirus tests performed so far, with 90 coming back negative. The state is working with the University of Missouri and Washington University in St. Louis to expand coronavirus testing capabilities, he said.
“We don’t know where this is going,” he said, “but we have to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”
McClatchy’s Bryan Lowry contributed to this story.
This story was originally published March 13, 2020 at 1:47 PM.
