Today’s update discusses:

• a still increasing number of positive COVID-19 cases
• Governor’s plan to re-open the state’s economy

HEALTH

• On Tuesday, Missouri neared 6,000 positive cases of COVID-19, with St. Louis County and
  St. Louis City combined accounting for over 3,000 of those cases. These numbers, according to Dr. Alex Garza, who is head of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force, do not give a complete picture of infections. Many people with the virus may never get tested, and there are lags in reporting the number of tests which are performed. Dr. Garza acknowledged that Missouri is still in the steep part of the curve, and he expects to see peak hospitalizations in some regions this coming weekend. Dr. Garza emphasized the importance of continuing social distancing, as coming out of this too quickly could result in a second surge of cases.

 ECONOMICS

• This week Governor Parson appeared on This Week in Missouri Politics and spoke with Scott Faughn about his plan to reopen the economy. Governor Parson acknowledged that everyone is ready to get back to normal, but looking at the data is of key importance before rushing to re-open. Governor Parson stated he is looking at key factors such as how many hospitals are ready, how many people are going into hospitals, and how many people are recovering and leaving hospitals. In addition, in an effort to achieve his testing goal before opening the economy, the Governor has been exploring ways to achieve more testing without waiting several months for that to happen.