Gov. Mike Parson is strategically building out his Show Me Strong Recovery Plan with hopes of a May 4 restart to the Missouri economy hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Between now and May 4, we will continue to monitor the situation and work with Missouri hospitals, health care providers, public health experts, business leaders and state departments to develop a plan, with the safety of Missourians at its core,” Parson said. “Our approach will be deliberate and data-driven.”
With Parson’s latest stay-at-home order slated to expire on that day, pillars of his plan include building testing capacity for the deadly virus, expansion of personal protective equipment, like masks, gloves and gowns, advancing the potential to predict future outbreaks and continuing to monitor hospital and health care systems’ capacity for patient care.
Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Director Dr. Randall Williams said the state can currently conduct up to 7,000 coronavirus tests per day with the potential to grow into meeting its stated goal of up to 10,000 every 24-hours.
Going forward, Williams said testing will move to “looking at getting people back to work, seeing if they have immunity.”
Williams added that antibody testing is expected to be available before long and will be steered in the direction of specific geographic areas or among certain populations of people, like nursing home residents, to determine the prevalence of COVID-19.
With about 175 tests expected to be conducted per hour, he said, “we’re going to use that very strategically,” in identifying people who suspect they’ve been exposed to the virus but aren’t certain.
