By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Statewide restrictions imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19 have been lifted as of today.
But that doesn’t mean things return to normal.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson says he doesn’t expect Missouri residents to resume the normal pace of life even though he has eased coronavirus restrictions.
“I don’t know how many people are going to want to travel, yet. I don’t know how many people are going to want to get on a plane, want to go to a hotel,” Parson tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “So, I think almost by public demand is how this is going to affect us at the end of the day.”
Parson says the state is still asking residents to maintain social distancing, standing at least six feet apart.
Kansas City and St. Louis continue to keep tighter restrictions in place.
St. Joseph is under its fourth amended emergency order, beginning to reopen businesses. Businesses are required to post signs with guidance for both customers and employees.
Parson says the state is expanding testing, even incorporating random testing, in its effort to combat COVID-19.
“We did a random test over by Rolla of about 100, I think it was 140-150 people, we just randomly went out there and tested them and they came back with no positives at all,” Parson says.
State officials sent nearly 3,000 test kits to St. Joseph when Triumph Foods first announced COVID-19 cases among its workers. Northwest Health Services set up a temporary testing site on the Triumph Foods parking lot in south St. Joseph last week and Friday morning wrapped up week-long testing by testing around 2,500 Triumph employees. Others will be tested later.
Missouri state health officials reported Sunday that 373 employees and contract workers with Triumph Foods in St. Joseph have tested positive for COVID-19. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services says none of the 373 displayed symptoms of the coronavirus. More results will be released over the next few days.
Though the statewide stay-at-home order has been lifted, no one knows what happens next.
“I think there are a lot of situations like that that we’re going to learn from this and we’re kind of learning as we go to be right honest about it,” Parson says.
Parson says some of the practices the public has gotten used to in the past few weeks might well stick with us long after.
“I think for somebody like me, I’m a little old school, so I think that you shake hands with people. I think that out of respect and a lot of different reasons you do that, but I don’t do that now and I’m getting used to not doing it just because of this virus,” Parson says. “So, I don’t know where that leads me some day. Does that mean we fundamentally change from things like that? I think the public will decide that.”