After first refusing, Missouri Gov. Parson reveals how many staff have had COVID-19

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s office on Monday disclosed that four staff members have tested positive for the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, after refusing to reveal the information last week following Parson’s own COVID-19 diagnosis.

The governor’s office said late Monday afternoon that all four employees had fully recovered. Parson, who tested positive on Sept. 23, left isolation on Saturday.

“All staff meeting the definition of close contact were tested following the Governor and First Lady’s positive test results. The four staffers who tested positive have fully recovered. The remainder of staff identified as close contacts tested negative and followed proper quarantine protocol consistent with CDC guidelines,” the statement says.

The statement also says only four staff members have tested positive “since the beginning of Missouri’s fight with COVID-19,” leaving it unclear whether the four staff members all tested positive after Parson’s diagnosis. A spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for clarification.

The four staff members – who include employees from the governor’s office, the governor’s mansion and the Missouri Highway Patrol Governor Security Division – are among the more than 1,800 state employees who have tested positive since the start of the pandemic.

State agencies particularly hard hit include the Department of Corrections (646 cases), the Department of Mental Health (393 cases) and the Department of Public Safety (211 cases), according to information from the Missouri Office of Administration. Of that number, 1,259 have recovered. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch first reported the numbers on Monday.

Last week, Parson’s office had refused to provide information about positive cases in the governor’s office. At the time, spokeswoman Kelli Jones said it wasn’t public information.

In Missouri, 133,418 people have tested positive for the coronavirus and 2,174 have died. More than 8,600 cases and 44 deaths have been reported in the past week.

Parson, 65, had been isolating at the governor’s mansion in Jefferson City since his diagnosis. First lady Teresa Parson, who also tested positive, isolated in Bolivar. The couple’s 10-day isolation period ended on Saturday, in line with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Teresa and I are so grateful that we are two of well over 100,000 Missourians that have recovered from this virus,” Parson said in a statement. “We are glad to be back and want to again thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers. We are humbled every day to be surrounded by such great people across the state.”

Parson’s office said in a statement he doesn’t plan to be retested for COVID-19, saying “evidence in most cases supports a symptom-based (rather than test-based) strategy to determine when to discontinue home isolation.”

The Republican governor, who took office in 2018, is campaigning against Democrat Nicole Galloway, the state auditor, for a full term and had been sidelined from the trail since his positive test. But Parson is resuming public events this week, beginning with a ribbon cutting ceremony in St. Joseph on Tuesday.

Parson and Galloway are set to face off at the first – and possibly only – debate of the race on Friday in Columbia.

The Star’s Bryan Lowry contributed reporting

This story was originally published October 5, 2020 at 6:27 PM.