Governor Parson’s problems reduced COVID-19 state of emergency

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) Intensive care units are nearly full across the Kansas City area, creating challenges for hospitals struggling to cope with the high number of COVID-19 patients.

The Kansas City Star reported that 215 intensive care beds in the area were in maximum use last week since the start of the pandemic, and that number has increased almost every day since. As of Wednesday, 224 people were hospitalized in intensive care units, according to hospital data tracked by the Mid-America Regional Council, a regional planning agency.

Data includes hospitals in Jackson and Clay counties in Missouri and Wyandotte and Johnson counties in Kansas.

Kansas City is not unique to Missouri. Data released on the state’s COVID-19 dashboard on Friday showed 690 intensive care patients across the state among 2,395 people hospitalized with COVID-19.

Governor Mike Parson on Friday repealed the COVID-19 state of emergency that had been in place on March 13, 2020 and replaced it with a smaller state of emergency focused on the health system.

Parson, a Republican, said in a statement that the changes recognize the state’s progress on the pandemic, especially now that vaccines are available. But he continued regulatory and other procedures that will allow the still struggling health system to respond to the increasing number of cases.

In addition to the growing number of cases, health workers blame the severity of illnesses, staff shortages and the refusal of so many to get vaccinated for the challenges hospitals currently face. Kansas City area hospitals have had to transfer patients, with and without COVID-19, to Chicago and Oklahoma City.

It breaks my heart to be at this point, said Allison Edwards, a physician and owner of a small direct primary care clinic in Midtown Kansas City. I don’t even know how to start rationing care. How do you start to make those decisions about where to put your priorities when the status quo can’t happen?

The state’s scoreboard on Friday cited 2,158 new confirmed cases and 26 additional deaths. Missouri has reported 624,239 cases and 10,435 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

After voting twice against a county-wide mask mandate, St. Louis County Council passed a resolution on Friday supporting a July 26 mask ordinance by Democratic County Executive Sam Page and Principal Acting Public Health Faisal Khan.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the four Democratic councils supported the measure; the three Republicans abstained, arguing the resolution was not binding. They said they would not support a mask warrant if it was legally binding.

Pages mask’s original warrant was the subject of a complaint filed by Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt. Last week, a judge ordered the county to enforce the order because it had not received council approval.

With vaccination rates still lagging behind in Saint-Louis, the city is offering an event Friday and Saturday with two goals: forgiveness for current terms and a chance to get vaccinated. Even more incentive: Those who show full proof of vaccination can get $ 100 off their fines and court costs.

City officials say the warrant remission program allows anyone with pending warrants to resolve charges without fear of being arrested on city charges and without having to pay a cash bond. A vaccination clinic will also be on site.

Only 46.2% of St. Louis have started vaccination, about 5 percentage points less than the state as a whole. Nationally, 61.1% of Americans have started immunizations, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The original design of the event was to make immunization clinics available at the same time as the amnesty to give people the opportunity to get vaccinated, City Judge Newton McCoy told St. Louis Public Radio. This idea was then expanded to give an incentive to those who have already been vaccinated.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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