The Laclede County Health Department is warning residents about possible exposure to COVID 19 at Camp Niangua.

Officials say two different positive cases visited the camp between June 22^nd and the 26^th.

Due to current law they cannot identify who these individuals are.

They say all who attended should monitor their symptoms for the next 14 days.

 

Additional Details from the Health Department:

The Laclede County Health Department announced seven new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday.

One of the seven new cases attended a high school graduation in Lebanon last weekend, according to the health department and school district.

Health officials shared the following timeline of potential exposures from recent cases:

June 22-26: Camp Niangua (possible exposure from three cases; one symptomatic, not masked)
June 24 (6:30-8:30 p.m.): Lebanon First Assembly (not symptomatic, not masked)
June 28 (9 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.): Lebanon First Assembly
June 29 (6:30-7:30 p.m.): Lebanon First Assembly (not symptomatic, not masked)
June 26 (11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.): Denny’s in Lebanon
June 27: Lebanon High School Graduation

Anyone who was at these locations on these dates is considered low risk for contracting COVID-19, but should monitor for symptoms. There is no need to self-quarantine or isolate unless symptoms develop.

Symptoms of COVID-19 include:
· Fever or chills
· Cough
· Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
· Fatigue
· Muscle or body aches
· Headache
· New loss of taste or smell
· Sore throat
· Congestion or runny nose
· Nausea or vomiting
· Diarrhea

There are now 31 active cases of COVID 19 across the Lake Area.

Both Miller and Morgan counties added several new cases on Thursday while Benton added 2 on Wednesday.

In total, there have been 128 positive cases of which 96 people have since recovered and there remains only 1 death.

Around Missouri, cases of COVID-19 cases are up, but mainly outside of the Lake Area in St. Louis, Kansas City and Southwestern Missouri.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson also says the overall growth rate of new cases of COVID-19 are declining around the state.

 

Officials in Benton County say there is still time for small business owners and non-profits to apply for monetary assistance through the CARES act.

The county received over $2.2 million dollars for funds under Round 2 of the act in March.

Officials say the funding is for reimbursement of supplies and equipment purchased in response to COVID 19 health rules or for revenue lost between March 1^st and May the 3^rd.

Those wishing to apply should submitted a signed and notarized application to the county clerk no later than 4:30PM on July 27^th

You can get an application at the county building at 316 Van Buren Street in Warsaw or click here to download it now.

Benton county is no longer at Zero active cases of COVID 19.

The county added two new active cases on Wednesday.

That brings the lake area totals to 25 active cases out of 115 total.

So far 89 people have recovered from the virus

 

Kids Win Missouri is calling on Congress to invest an additional $50 Billion dollars to stabilize the Child Care Industry.

The organization releasing a new report this week that details the challenges child care providers are facing from the impact of COVID 19.

Officials say the key takeaways are that programs throughout the state remain at risk due to financial struggles and they have issues affording the costly requirements for child safety.

Advocates believe Congress will begin discussions on this issue in the next round of funding.

 

New Report: Child Care Facilities Struggle to Survive with COVID-19 Challenges

Advocates call for quick, substantial investment to support families and providers

June 30, 2020 – On Tuesday, Kids Win Missouri, a children’s policy and advocacy coalition, released a new report detailing the challenges child care providers face from the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization joined national efforts calling for Congress to invest an additional $50 billion to stabilize the child care industry.

“Child care providers have been hit by the pandemic in a very unique way,” said Brian Schmidt, Executive Director of Kids Win Missouri. “The child care system has always operated on razor-thin margins and we are now asking them to serve on the frontlines, care for the children of essential workers, completely overhaul their operations to accommodate new requirements, and to do so while losing income.”

From April to June, Kids Win Missouri hosted virtual sessions using Zoom and met with and surveyed more than 100 child care providers from throughout the state. They hosted regional sessions for Kansas City, St. Louis, Mid-Missouri, Joplin, St. Joseph and Springfield. Additionally, multiple sessions were held which included providers from across the state and a few sessions were dedicated to specific types of providers, including Head Start programs and afterschool programs.

Key takeaways from the report concluded that many programs throughout the state are still at risk of financial insolvency, current payment structures do not provide the needed flexibility to address immediate needs and long-term planning, and there are noted inequities in how programs are experiencing the pandemic.

“We talked to such a diverse group of providers throughout the state – it’s clear that they are all feeling the impacts of this crisis,” said Casey Hanson, Director of Outreach and Engagement for Kids Win Missouri, “But there are certain programs that are really at risk right now, and unfortunately, it is those programs that serve the highest percentage of low income children and families and those families and communities most impacted by COVID-19, particularly in our Black and brown communities.”

On a Report Release call on Tuesday, Kids Win Missouri invited providers from throughout the state to share their perspectives about their challenges as providers and their concerns about long-term sustainability. Cortaiga Collins, Owner of Good Shepherd Infant and Toddler Center in St. Louis, discussed a concern of enhanced payments running out just as her program is getting back up and running.

“We’ve taken on extreme added costs to meet the challenges of the time and are still operating at reduced capacity to accommodate health and safety guidelines. 99% of the children I serve are on subsidy, so as we revert back to being paid on attendance in July, the numbers just don’t add up. I will be losing money every day that I’m open,” Collins said.

Other providers echoed Collins’ concerns about the added costs to operation and where to make up those additional funds to support their programs. Stoney Hays, CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of the Ozarks in Branson, highlighted the difficult position many non-profit programs are in as they try to cover increasing costs.

“We are always working to blend our funding and access as many funding streams as possible to take the burden off of the families that we serve, including our own fundraising,” Hays said. “Most of our fundraising is completely on hold, yet we are adding additional costs every day to ensure we’re meeting health and safety guidelines and adjusting operations to better serve our families, including adding virtual programming and food distribution.”

Other providers noted the impact COVID-19 has had on their ability to continue to deliver quality programming and to meet the needs of children and families.

“Because we are so laser-focused right now on health and safety and making ends meet as we try to implement all of these new guidelines, there is some fear that quality could suffer as programs look to cut costs to make their budgets work,” Mary Esselman, CEO of Operation Breakthrough in Kansas City. “We have to remember that all of this work and investment is for our children, and we have to center that as we push for more funding.”

The release of Kids Win’s report kicks off a federal advocacy effort, joining national allies in calling for Congress to make a $50 billion investment and create a Child Care Stabilization Fund to support programs across the nation. According to the report, Missouri would receive almost $1 billion to invest in child care through flexible grants. Programs could use the funds to cover increased costs in equipment, PPE, sanitation and cleaning supplies, fixed costs, like rent, mortgage and utilities, salaries and benefits, training and professional development, resources to support mental health for children and staff, other costs associated with meeting the current needs of the industry.

“A number of national, bipartisan policy groups have arrived at this $50 billion number as what it will take to stabilize the industry, and many actually think it will take more,” said Craig Stevenson, Director of Policy and Advocacy for Kids Win Missouri. “The bottom-line is – child care is the backbone of our state’s economy, and if we want to get parents back to work, we need to invest quickly and substantially in our vital child care workforce and industry.”

Advocates insist time is of the essence. As of June 30, the Department of Social Services will end the enhanced payments that have been supporting providers that serve parents receiving support from the Child Care Development Block Grant program grapple with diminished attendance from March through June. DSS has also distributed most of the one time grant funds that went to stabilize programs providing care through the pandemic. As many programs remain closed or operate at lower capacity, Robin Phillips fears providers will begin shuttering before they get a chance to fully reopen.

“Our data shows us that prior to the pandemic about half of Missouri’s families lived in child care deserts. Due to COVID-19 and the associated shutdowns, that number has increased by 50% and we now have 95 of Missouri’s 115 counties considered a child care desert,” Phillips said. “If more programs are forced into permanent closure, we are really putting our children, families, and economy at risk.”

Advocates expect that Congress will convene after the July 4^th recess to begin debating the next round of federal relief funding. To read Kids Win Missouri’s full report and more advocacy efforts, visit their Child Care Relief website here.

Senator Roy Blunt will be holding a hearing on the Coronavirus Vaccine this Thursday.

Blunt speaking during a Republican leadership conference.

He says one of his goals is to work on prioritizing funding for testing, therapeutics, and a vaccine in the next coronavirus response bill

The Hearing will take place at 10AM and is viewable online.

 

WASHINGTON – At the Republican leadership press conference today, U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.), Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor/HHS), discussed a hearing he will chair on Thursday to receive an update on the administration’s efforts to develop a vaccine through Operation Warp Speed. Blunt also said the subcommittee will work to prioritize funding for testing, therapeutics, and a vaccine in the next coronavirus response bill.

 

 

Following Are Blunt’s Remarks:

“I think on that topic, we will be putting together a bill when we come back, so a month from now we should be in the final stages of getting that bill together. We’ll have more information than we have right now. I’ve already asked my appropriating subcommittee that does the health and education and labor appropriating to begin to put a package together that will ensure that we have more testing, that we continue to work on therapeutics, and we have the money we need to move forward with the vaccine.

“I think that Dr. Barrasso said a couple of times in meetings he and I were in, and so were the others here behind me, that the most important thing we do to resume normalcy is to get people back to school. You’re not going to do that, particularly in a residential setting, without millions of tests that people can take dozens of times. That’s very practical, it’s very possible.

“We’re going to have a hearing this Thursday with Dr. Collins from NIH and the head of BARDA, the investing group, and Dr. Redfield from CDC, to talk about how those rapid efforts moving forward will still produce safe tests, safe therapeutics, and maybe most importantly a safe vaccine. And our willingness to move forward before we know that all of these are going to make it to the final stage of approval, so that when we do have a final approval we have that particular vaccine already ready to get out.

“And one of the things I’m going to talk to Dr. Redfield about Thursday is after developing the vaccine, the next thing that maybe almost equally important, is a plan to get that vaccine out quickly and fairly in a way that people will think that the whole country is adequately and appropriately served by it.

“We’ll be doing that Thursday, we’ll be doing lots of other things this week and while we’re home to collect the information we need to have that next COVID package in mind when we get back here and I think the timing is going to be just about right for us to know what we need to know for a package that moves us into August, September, and October.”

Changes are in store for Lake Area college students returning to campus this year at the University of Missouri in Columbia.

They include isolation facilities, hybrid classes and a recommended pre-semester quarantine for students returning in August.

MU officials say they’ve set aside lodging for students living in housing on campus “to isolate positive cases and quarantine their close contacts.”

Students, staff and faculty are expected to supply their own face coverings and they will be required in classroom settings, as well as open areas within campus buildings.

August move-in for students living in university housing has been spread out across August 12^th through the 23^rd and students must sign up for a 90-minute time slot prior to arrival.

Students must also have a face covering, thermometer, hand sanitizer and other cleaning products with them to move into their housing.

You can find out more details on Mizzou’s return plans here.

The annual fall FFA convention will be going virtual in response to COVID 19.

Officials say the convention will take place as planned on October 28^th through the 31^st.

Additional details are expected to be released sometime in August and delegates will be meeting remotely over the next few weeks to select their officer teams.

Individual awards and the recognition programs will also continue as planned during the virtual convention.

Drive Through COVID 19 testing is taking place today (Tuesday) at the Central Ozarks Medical Center in Osage Beach

Those wanting to be tested can do so free of charge.

It starts at 5PM and lasts until 7PM.

Benton County is the first Lake Community to be COVID 19 free.

County Health Officials say they have 0 active cases and all 16 people who were infected have since recovered.

That brings the lake area active totals to 24 out of 112 cases.

So far 87 people have recovered from the virus.

Lake area residents remain worried about possible evictions, as postponed rent payments due to COVID 19 start to come due.

With enhanced federal unemployment benefits ending next month and still high joblessness, the Center for Planning Excellence fears tens of thousands of families won’t have money for rent.

CEO Camille Manning Broom says “Having a roof over your head is a basic need in a basic necessity. We can’t allow individuals fall into homelessness at, especially at this magnitude.”

She also says Congress needs to pass the Emergency Rental Assistance Act.

Governor Mike Parson says Missouri did receive funds in the Cares act, which allows for grant payments to providers of items and services such as food, clothing, housing, or utilities on behalf of an individual or family in an emergency crisis.

Officials in Pulaski County say there’s still time to get funds to help your small business.

The Coronavirus Relief Committee says they are ready to distribute the Federal Cares Act funds for COVID related expenses.

The funds are not available to small businesses that have received the Paycheck Protection Payments.

Business owners are encouraged to contact the county treasurer’s office for more details and you can go to their website to print out the two-page application form.

So far, the county has received just 22 applications.

 

Missouri has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, according to a new study from WalletHub.

Missouri had a May unemployment rate of 9.8 percent, a 221-percent increase over the same time a year ago.

The state has some of the fewest COVID 19 restrictions nationwide, allowing more residents to get to work freely and fast.

Of a recent survey conducted, Missouri ranked 6^th overall in COVID restrictions.

It also ranked 2^nd in overall restaurant and bar re-openings, as well as 6^th based on overall business re-openings nationwide.