Parson talks COVID progress during visit

Gov. Mike Parson came to Poplar Bluff Tuesday morning for meetings at Gamma Health and Three Rivers College.

At Gamma Healthcare Inc., Parson said, he discussed with the staff about COVID-19 testing and the goal of increasing rapid testing in the area.

“We went there today (because) that’s one of the testing laboratories, and we know how important that’s going to be, especially in their particular business for long-term care,” Parson said. “It’s important to make sure we get those employees tested, (and) we get visitors tested.”

Parson said he’s working to increase accessibility to rapid testing for the coronavirus statewide.

While there’s a focus on essential workers, the goal is to make it available for everyone.

“We know that to open our nursing homes back up as long term-care facilities, we’re going to have to make testing more available, not just for the employees, the doctors and nurses, but to get the families ready to go in there and see them,” he said.

At TRC, Parson met with administration and faculty leadership to address how the college has handled returning to in-person classes while still combatting COVID-19.

Dr. Wesley Payne, TRC president, said overall things have gone very well thanks to the work by the faculty and staff, both in and out of the classroom.

Payne said the main challenges and concerns are issues which stay outside of the college’s control.

“If our local school districts begin to shut down, and our students, faculty and staff begin to have childcare issues that we can’t solve, that would potentially greatly impact our operations depending on which one shut down,” he said.

“I think that just the overall situation is a challenge, but we are prepared, and we are responding to that with appropriate mechanisms.”

Parson praised TRC for its reopening efforts.

“You guys are well ahead of the game, and you understand the situation you’re facing, and you just got to keep moving forward every day,” he said.

The college, along with other institutions around the state, will continue to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic when the next semester comes around in January, Parson said.

He said he gained an understanding from these meetings about the loyalty and hard work people are putting in to do what needs to be done.

“We got to figure out how to move forward as safely as we can,” he said. “At this time, we’re much better off today than we were six months ago.”