After saying ample COVID tests ‘months away,’ Parson optimistic on Missouri’s May 4 goal
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said Monday he’s confident the state will soon be able to test 40,000 to 50,000 people every week for COVID-19, a key benchmark he’s set for lifting restrictions on businesses put in place to slow the spread of the virus.
“I want to assure Missourians that there is light at the end of the tunnel,” the governor said Monday.
He can’t say for sure when the state could reach his testing goals, Parson said, but “I would hope to get there by May 4” — when his social distancing order expires and when he has repeatedly said he hopes to begin opening up parts of the state’s economy.
Yet just 24-hours earlier Parson didn’t sound as optimistic. He said in a TV interview that aired Sunday that getting enough tests to “make sure everybody is comfortable where everybody gets tested, that’s months away.”
“I literally am going to have to try to figure out what testing I’ll have over the next two to three weeks, how do I implement that in the places where we need, and then make decisions about how to move forward,” he said. “We can’t wait three or four months to engage the economy, until we can get all the testing. We’re going to hope we get more tests and get a better idea, but look we gotta move forward.”
Public health experts agree that that once government-issued stay-at-home orders end, widespread testing will be needed to quickly identify infected individuals and avoid new spikes in COVID-19 infections that could lead to more deaths and surges in hospital use.
The White House, in laying out its plan for states to reopen, specifically point to a dramatic increase in testing.
State and private labs in Missouri have performed around 57,000 tests since the outbreak began in early March. According to data compiled by the COVID Tracking Project, around 10,500 tests were performed in Missouri last week.
As of Monday, the state has reported 5,807 and 177 deaths.
Randall Williams, Parson’s state health director, called the governor’s testing goal “realistic,” pointing to more testing facilities coming on line, new types of tests, such as antibody testing, being deployed, and an expanded population of people getting tested.
Lisa Cox, communications director for Missouri’s DHSS, said in an email to The Star that labs around the state have more capacity for testing than is being utilized.
“Backlogs and scarcity of items like swabs and other one-time use items are what is currently keeping all labs from running at max capacity,” she said.
On NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, Vice President Mike Pence said “there is a sufficient capacity of testing across the country today for any state in America” to go to the first of three phases that the administration says are needed for the country to emerge from the coronavirus shutdown.
The remarks earned sharp push back from Republican and Democratic governors who say they are still facing shortages of things like swabs and reagents required for the test. Public health experts agree that the nation continues to face a testing shortage.
Parson said he was among governors on a call with Pence on Monday focused on testing.
“They believe there is going to be more and more testing becoming available in the next week or two,” he said. “I think everybody including the White House all the way down to the Congressional delegation understands how important testing is. You’re going to continue to see that improve.”
He said he agrees with the White House that “we have to open up this country for business. We’re going to have to do both. We’re going to have to go back to work and at the same time we’re going to have to fight this virus.”
Parson’s likely Democratic opponent in November, state Auditor Nicole Galloway, released a statement Saturday questioning how Parson landed on the 50,000 tests per week benchmark.
“About 50,000 tests have been done in total since this crisis began, so the governor is suggesting an increased testing ability by nearly 500 percent a week,” she said. “Missourians need the governor to communicate clearly and to create a transparent database showing our expanding testing capabilities, including where we are testing, the number of tests kits and swabs available, test processing capacity, and the number of tests processed each day in order to give Missourians confidence that a phased reopening can be done responsibly and safely beginning May 4.”
Parson said Monday that while he remains committed to beginning a phased in reopening of the state on May 4, he conceded “I don’t have a crystal ball anymore than anybody else out there does. The only thing I can do is every day take the facts I have to make the decisions at the time.”
He has also made it clear that even if the state lifts restrictions local governments would still have the authority to establish their own criteria. Kansas City, for example, has a stay-at-home order in place until May 15.
But Parson said the data he’s seen makes him optimistic the COVID-19 outbreak is beginning to stabilize in Missouri.
“Right now,” he said, “May 4 is the date we’re planning on opening up more businesses, putting more people back to work and we’re going to continue to do that unless something changes.”
This story was originally published April 20, 2020 at 5:30 PM.
