Butler County lifts facemask requirement for restaurants

Butler County has had its first positive COVID-19 case in two and a half weeks, bringing the county's total to 27 cases.

The patient took several tests and had a positive test mixed in with a couple of negative tests, Butler County Health Department administrator Emily Goodin said. After consulting with state officials, Butler County was advised to treat the case as a positive, Butler County's first since April 26.

"The patient was isolated and is now in recovery," Goodin said.

Missouri has now had 10,142 positive cases statewide, with 542 deaths and more than 124,000 tests given. Missouri Governor Mike Parson emphasized during his Wednesday coronavirus briefing that the vast majority of Missouri's positive cases have recovered or are recovering.

The health department also lifted its requirement that all restaurant workers wear facemasks while all other restrictions remain in place.

"If the restaurants or food establishments want their employees to continue wearing masks, by all means, they can keep wearing them," Goodin said. "We just felt that we needed to ease up a little bit. We wanted to show the community that we are concerned about their health, but we also would like to see Poplar Bluff going back a little bit to somewhat of a normalcy. So that's why we lifted the masks, and we're going to keep the other restrictions, but again, as we move on, we'll be revisiting those restrictions, as well."

Restaurants are still required to have six feet between tables, operate at 50% capacity, and not allow customers to serve themselves at buffets. Outdoor gatherings are also still required to submit a plan to the health department on how they plan to enforce social distancing and keep people safe.

The health department has appointments scheduled for the remainder of the 70 RAPID tests the state issued it. The machine used to process the tests, which gives results in 30-45 minutes, will be shared with Dunklin County next week and return to Butler County following Memorial Day. The health department can perform about 15 RAPID tests per day.

Johnna Craft, Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center director of risk management and facilities compliance officer, said during a Tuesday conference call with area officials that the hospital is still asking for cloth mask donations to ease the rate it goes through personal protective equipment now that PBRMC is performing elective procedures and allowing visitors. On Monday, Craft said the hospital had included about 500 cloth masks in its circulation, with those masks being laundered after each use.

"We greatly appreciate the response that we've gotten so far. It is helping us not to burn up our resources that we have available and keep our patients and visitors safe," Craft said.

Poplar Bluff Boys & Girls Club CEO Chris Rushin announced that along with Poplar Bluff R-1 School District and Chartwells, they had distributed 277,304 meals to area kids.