Boone County/Columbia Board of Health discusses COVID-19 concerns

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Boone County/Columbia Board of Health discussed a variety of topics related to COVID-19 at its meeting Thursday night.

The health department said it has testing kits on hand to send to the state lab if needed.

The Board of Health serves as an advisory board to the city manager, health officer and the City Council on matters pertaining to public health.

Members on the board spoke about potential struggles of the virus affecting peoples' day-to-day lives.

"When you have an outbreak like this it exposes social injustices and we have a tale of two cities here we have insured and uninsured we have people that can take sick leave and people who live paycheck to paycheck and don't have an incentive to take sick leave when they're ill," said Lynelle Phillips, a board member.

Board members said there should be protections put in place so people can still pay bills without having to worry.

"We need policies in place so that if you need to be isolated or quarantined, you're not going to lose your job during that time," Phillips said. "Otherwise people with symptoms may be disincentivized to come forward and without that, we're not going to be able to understand transmission in our community."

There are still zero confirmed cases of coronavirus in Boone or Cole County.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said its COVID-19 Hotline hit capacity around 1 p.m. on Thursday.