Gov. Parson: State ‘ready and prepared to move forward’

The state officially will reopen Tuesday as it moves into phase two of the “Show Me Strong” initiative.

During this new phase, there will be no statewide health order, Gov. Mike Parson said Thursday afternoon. Local officials can put further rules, regulations or ordinances in place.

Under phase two of the plan, the state will be fully open for business, Parson said.

Several executive orders will remain in place through Dec. 30. The state of emergency is one “in order to utilize the CARES Act funding.”

In addition, orders that “ease regulatory burdens” on telemedicine and motor carriers, mobilize the National Guard to aid in response efforts, waive the requirement for a person to be physically present in front of a notary pubic and allow the sale of unprepared restaurant foods to the public.

“Extending these orders is consistent with the emergency declaration and gives Missourians time to adjust as the state works through the economic recovery process,” Parson said.

The state will release guidance for long-term and veteran care facilities in the coming days.

Parson said he still encourages the avoidance of large crowds, social distancing when able and taking additional precautions when it isn’t as COVID-19 is still out in communities.

“We have full confidence that Missouri is ready and prepared to move forward,” he said. “I want to be clear, just because we’re fully reopening the state does not mean that the steps we’ve taken so far should be forgotten. The virus is still out there.”

Department of Economic Development Director Rob Dixon said a new website is available to give businesses guidance on returning to regular operations at www.showmestrong.mo.gov/dashboard.

Dixon said in talking with businesses around the state, 78% have a plan in place to respond if there is an outbreak. Additionally, 82% implemented health screenings for employees.

Businesses, which have not created such a plan or a plan for contact tracing in the case of an outbreak, are encouraged to do so, he said.

The Missouri unemployment rate is at 13.3% whereas in March it was at 4%.

“Companies are starting to call back employees who were laid off,” Dixon said. “We’re seeing a decline in the ongoing unemployment claims. They were at a historical peak of 440,000 to now falling to 350,000.”

The highest weekly continuing claims during the Great Recession in 2008 was at 210,000 claims.

In April, at the peak of the pandemic, Missourians working in small business reported working about 50% of the hours they were working in January. That is now down by 20% compared to January.

“We’re encouraged by strong upticks in job postings in some of the hardest hit industries across our state, like leisure and hospitality,” Dixon said. “Even though we have a ways to go on economic recovery, the bottom line is that our economy is coming back.”

In relation to large events, such as concerts and sports, Parson said, he thinks most of that will come down to the consumers and whether people want to go to them.

“I think that goes back to the entities that are going to have them,” Parson said.

PHASE ONE

Phase one of the “Show Me Strong” initiative focused on increasing testing capacity, expanding reserves of personal protective equipment, monitoring the needs of hospitals and improving the ability to predict outbreaks.

It started after the state’s official stay-at-home order expired May 4.

Weekly testing in Missouri has increased more than 220% from approximately 16,000 test encounters the week of April 20 to over 53,000 encounters the week of May 25, Parson said.

Over the past two weeks, the state has averaged more than 10,000 tests per weekday.

For protective equipment, the state still is receiving and distributing it. Parson said Wednesday was a record shipment going to hospitals, health care facilities, EMS and dental offices.

Shipments included over 17,000 gowns, 42,000 N95 masks, 262,000 gloves, 77,000 surgical masks and 18,000 face shields, according to a release from the governor’s office.

Between May 1 and June 10, hospitalizations fell by 43%, Parson said. The alternate care site built in St. Louis still is operational, and, he said, it will remain up for the coming months in case of another spike in cases.

When COVID-19 first hit the state, Parson said, one of the challenges he had was receiving information to base decisions off of.

“There was a lot of national models out there that, frankly, were pretty inaccurate and wasn’t doing us much good,” he said. “With the resources we had in the state and coming together with a plan to say we need to take care of Missouri first, that’s when the data became so important.

“We went from having Missouri specific data to an entire dashboard of data from across the state.”

STATE FAIR

Parson said “some version” of the Missouri State Fair will happen this year.

There could be changes to hours or the number of days, in order to address concerns, but Parson insisted it will happen.

He has been in contact with the State Fair Committee about how to do it safely.