State watching infection rate, hospital beds before consider winding down social distancing
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.
State leaders are watching the new infection rate of COVID-19, the patients' locations and open hospital beds to decide when winding down social distancing in Missouri would be appropriate.
Dr. Randall Williams, director of the Department of Health and Senior Services, said he and others hoped to see the rate of new infections drop before rolling back rules on crowd sizes and business restrictions. Williams said the state also looked at where those cases are coming from.
"When that curve starts flattening, that's something we're very interested in, not only the rate of new cases, but where those cases are," Williams said.
The curve of new cases has only increased since the beginning of March. DHSS reported 3,037 positive cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, more than doubling since last week. The rate of growth has steadily increased each day by about 10 percent.
State leaders have not said when exactly they expect the pandemic to pass Missouri. Governor Mike Parson said last week that he anticipated being under some sort of social distancing order for 30 to 60 days. Parson put tighter limits on how many people could be in many "essential" businesses on Friday in his "stay-at-home" order in an effort to slow the novel coronavirus' spread. The order lasts until April 24.
Williams said increased testing measures the state will announce on Wednesday should help them analyze infection data better. Forty-seven mobile test sites help them gather samples, with more on the way.
"We're working very closely with our partners in academics, with the Missouri Hospital Association, our federal partners, and we're using that data to see where that curve is," Williams said.
Williams said the state would also closely monitor the availability of hospital beds, particularly beds in intensive care units.
April 24 will be an important date for state leaders in deciding what comes next, Williams said. The timeframe could give them an a good look at how their policies are working and what needs to be changed.
"We are very hopeful what our testing and our data is going to show us is that if we continue that for the next three weeks, that by late April, we will start seeing that curve moving in the different direction," Williams said.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation moved up the day Missouri will see a "peak" in COVID-19 deaths to April 19 this week from late May. Experts in mid-Missouri believe the change was made following Parson's "stay-at-home" order that took effect on Monday.
