Pending expiration of Phase 1 on June 15, Governor Mike Parson has announced that Missouri will fully reopen and enter Phase 2 of its “Show Me Strong Recovery” Plan on Tuesday, June 16.
“It is truly incredible to think about how far Missouri has come since March. At that time, no one knew what to expect. There was a lot of uncertainty, worry and concern,” Governor Parson said. “Here we are today, just over 90 days since our first COVID-19 case in Missouri, and I am proud to say we have overcome all of these challenges and more than met our four pillars to reopen.”
A news release says during Phase 2, there will be no statewide health order. All statewide restrictions will be lifted, though local officials will still have the authority to put further rules, regulations or ordinances in place.
The decision to reopen was dependent on the four essential “Show Me Strong Recovery” pillars:
1. Expand testing capacity and volume in the state;
2. Expand reserves of PPE by opening public and private supply chains;
3. Continue to monitor and, if necessary, expand hospital and health care system capacity; and
4. Improve ability to predict potential outbreaks using Missouri’s public health data.
Weekly testing in Missouri has increased more than 220 percent from approximately 16,000 test encounters the week of April 20 to over 53,000 encounters the week of May 25. Over the past two weeks, the state has averaged more than 10,000 tests per weekday.