Governor Mike Parson is clearing up a data error on COVID-19 numbers.

The Governor says the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services corrected the technical issue and the correct numbers are now posted.

Parson also says that cases across Missouri are up, but deaths are down.

He says a new saliva-based testing machine will soon be available in the Lake Area.

Missouri has completed its plan for the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccination, once it becomes available.

Governor Parson Announces Completion of Missouri COVID-19 Vaccine Plan, Submission to CDC

(JEFFERSON CITY, MO) – Today, Governor Mike Parson announced that Missouri has submitted its plan for administering the impending COVID-19 vaccine to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Governor Parson was joined by Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) Director Dr. Randall Williams during today’s weekly briefing to announce the completion of the plan, which was due to the CDC by October 16.

“This has been an incredible collaborative effort, and I want to thank all of the agencies and partners involved for their hard work and dedication. In the midst of an ever-changing and unprecedented situation, our team of professionals has done outstanding work to develop a detailed plan,” Governor Parson said. “We are in a great place in the planning process and will be well-prepared to take action as soon as a vaccine becomes available.”

In April, the CDC began communicating with the DHSS Bureau of Immunizations regarding early planning efforts, and multi-agency planning began in July. In August, a larger group of more than 75 State team members, 10 Missouri National Guardsmen, and 50 federal and local partners began working together to develop Missouri’s COVID-19 vaccine response plan.

The state received the CDC’s COVID-19 Vaccination Program Interim Playbook just one month ago.

“We have worked diligently for months, even before we received this direction from the CDC, to ensure we are prepared for when the time comes to execute the plans to distribute and administer the vaccine,” Dr. Williams said. “We’re grateful to our partners who have shared their knowledge and expertise and will continue to assist us moving forward.”

Missouri’s planning efforts are based upon CDC guidance to anticipate a phased availability of vaccines within the state. Recognizing the likelihood of limited availability, Missouri’s plan first focuses the initial doses toward reducing or stopping death and disability by reducing the stress on health care systems caring for affected patients.

The state plans to collaborate with health care systems and pharmacy and community partners to vaccinate long-term care facility staff and other health care workers.

“The Missouri Hospital Association appreciates being a partner in the state’s COVID-19 vaccine planning effort,” said Missouri Hospital Association President and CEO Herb Kuhn. “Missouri’s hospitals will be actively engaged in advocating for vaccination and administering the vaccine in the communities they serve.”

As vaccine availability expands, vaccination efforts will be aimed at residents most at risk, the elderly, and those with medical conditions placing them at high risk for poor outcomes.

“Missouri’s long-term care facilities employ tens of thousands of essential health care workers dedicated to caring for our residents who are most vulnerable to COVID-19 due to their age and underlying health conditions,” said Nikki Strong, Executive Director of the Missouri Health Care Association. “The asymptomatic nature of this virus makes it difficult to keep it from entering long-term care facilities through these essential staff. We applaud Governor Parson and his team for recognizing this and developing a vaccination plan that puts the staff and residents in Missouri’s long-term care facilities at the highest level of priority once a proven vaccine is available.”

Simultaneously, efforts will be made to reach essential workers in schools and critical businesses. As availability continues to increase, the plan’s final phase will help ensure every Missourian who wants a vaccination is able to obtain one.

“COVID-19 highlights the importance of prevention,” Missouri Primary Care Association CEO Joe Pierle said. “On behalf of the federally-qualified health centers throughout the state, we stand ready to be a vital and integral partner in preventing individual patients from contracting the disease and helping mitigate community spread.”

A unique aspect of Missouri’s COVID-19 vaccination plan is recognition of the primacy of local communities and the state’s role to assist them in their efforts.

While a state implementation team is responsible for coordinating with federal agencies, this plan empowers local and regional implementation teams with additional financial and technical support from the state to convene community leaders, citizen advocates, and local health care providers who know the most about their communities.

“We look forward to coordinating future vaccine distribution with our community partners,” said Clay Goddard, Director of Health for the Springfield-Greene County Health Department. “We are fortunate to have a strong network of long-held relationships with health care, nonprofits, community groups and others in our area that has strengthened our response to COVID-19, and will continue to as we enter the vaccine phase.”

Missouri’s plan builds on the existing network of immunizing providers across Missouri, augmenting their efforts in areas of provider shortages.

“Combining the old-fashioned volunteer spirit of Missourians with state-of-the-art technology guarantees a safe and effective vaccine is distributed equitably and efficiently,” DHSS Bureau of Immunizations Chief Jennifer VanBooven said.

Preparations and scenario exercises are actively continuing while awaiting an approved vaccine. As part of Operation Warp Speed, federal agencies will announce when a COVID-19 vaccine is approved.

To view Missouri’s COVID-19 vaccine plan, click here. To learn more about Missouri’s COVID-19 response, visit health.mo.gov/coronavirus.

This year’s Presidential Election will look different in the Lake Area, but one Missouri Senator thinks the process is secure.

Senator Roy Blunt points to $1.2 billion dollars having been spent on updating antiquated systems that had no ballot trail and the work that’s been done to help safe voting processes during the COVID-19.

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft was in Camdenton this week with Mayor John McNabb to assure people in the Lake Area and around the state that voting is safe and that votes will count.

WASHINGTON – Yesterday, U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (Mo.), Chairman of the Senate Rules Committee and a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, discussed the steps the Congress has taken to increase election security. Congress has provided more than $1.2 billion to help states update antiquated systems, increase their cybersecurity, and respond to COVID-19 related challenges.

Following Are Excerpts of Blunt’s Remarks:

“Madam President, I want to talk for a few minutes about securing our election process. At various times in the last four years, there have been different levels of reasons why the federal government needed to take over the election process. For a while, it was that the process was too easily infiltrated by outside influences, and then it was COVID-19, and it was important that everybody vote in different ways than had ever voted before and somehow only the federal government could manage that.

“I would say that, just as we look toward the 2020 elections, we’ve sent over a billion dollars, I think it’s $1.2 billion in funding, from the Congress. We’ve had dozens of hearings, the Rules Committee, the Judiciary Committee, the Homeland Security Committee, there was a three-and-a-half year bipartisan investigation that I was part of, as part of the Intel committee, and we’ve looked at this about every way we can. …

“Confidence in the voting process is the thread that holds the fabric of democracy together. Every time we needlessly get into a discussion about whether this process is fair or safe, I think it’s harmful. Every time we need to have that discussion about whether it’s fair or safe, it’s, of course, not only helpful, but totally appropriate.

“But this is the time when we need to be sure that our work has brought us to a good conclusion rather than talking about the fact that the system is not going to work. The system is going to work. As the chairman of the Rules Committee, where we have the principal election jurisdiction, or as a member of the Intelligence Committee, I’ve spent a lot of time looking at this. I think we’ve been very serious in the Senate, particularly in considering these issues and at looking at the threats to our election system itself.

“I’m not going to talk much in the next few minutes about false information and other things. My view, all you have to do is turn on the television to find some false information and watch the campaign commercials. There’s a nugget of truth, perhaps, but most of them, many of them, have little more than a nugget of truth in them. And sure, I’m concerned about false information.

“I’m particularly concerned about it if it comes from foreign governments, from those who wish our country ill. But there’s a lot of information out there, a lot more information than there’s ever been before. And people should be very thoughtful about the information that they take in. I’m not going to talk a lot about that, I want to talk about the election system itself because, in my view, the Election Day system is as secure as it’s ever been, the registration system as secure as it’s ever been. …

“So for 20 years, Congress has done all we can think of to help the system work better. We spent over a billion dollars in the past four years, we’ve encouraged that we update and have seen updated antiquated systems, systems that didn’t have a ballot trail, and other things have generally all been replaced and where they haven’t been, I think they’re on even higher alert. We’ve helped them increase their cybersecurity.

“We’ve responded to COVID-19 with help to local governments that, in some cases, was used for establishing polling places and even maybe paying extra to election judges than we had done before. But while we provided those resources, it has been for a long time, and still is up to, local and state officials who are the closest to the people they work for, to do everything they can to secure those elections. I spent about 20 years doing that part of it as a local election official, a county official in Missouri, and part of it as the Missouri Secretary of State, the chief election official. …

“Clearly, again, there have been efforts by foreign adversaries — Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and others — to interfere with our elections. But we want to be sure, and I believe have been sure, that federal agencies have been providing the resources they needed to investigate bad actors, to punish bad actors, to do everything they could to protect the American election system. …

“The Rules Committee has held four hearings since the 2018 election, one on election security, one on how we’re preparing for the [2020] election, and one on oversight of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. In addition to that, putting people on the Federal Elections Commission to fill vacancies that had been there for a long time. The Judiciary Committee has looked into things like the social media companies that are trying to drop disinformation. Homeland Security has drawn out a roadmap and put the kinds of protections in the system that you’d want to have in the system for the equipment that counts votes, the registration system that’s available on Election Day.

“The Intelligence Committee, as I said before, conducted a three-and-a-half year investigation on foreign meddling in the last election and the administration is holding those perpetrators accountable. The Justice Department has secured indictments against three Russian companies, 26 people involved with [the] Russian influence campaign in 2016 have been impacted by that. The Justice Department has sanctioned 46 other people and 18 businesses. …

“We don’t need a federal takeover. Many of you have heard me say before that late in 2016, President Obama, said quote, ‘There is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig American elections, in part, because they are so decentralized in the number of votes involved.’ …

“The diversity of this system is the strength of the system. I personally think the best place to vote is at a polling place on Election Day. I don’t always get to vote that way. But if you want to have all the information that happens between the start of the campaign and the day you vote, the only way you get that is voting on Election Day. If you want to see your ballot go into a ballot box or into the counting system and know that happened, you best get that at Election Day.

“But many people will vote in other ways, particularly this year. Usually the other ways are a little more complicated, but they’re still protected by comparison of signatures in most states. They’re still usually going to include an indication on the voter roll that goes to the polling place that somebody has already received another ballot.

“There are safeguards there and, for reasons we all understand, more people are going to vote earlier in this election than ever before. I know our election officials in our state, and I suspect all over the country, are planning on what they can do to still have the most information available possible on election night. But it’s unlikely we’re going to know everything we want to know election night.

“If you don’t want to vote at a polling place on Election Day or can’t vote at a polling place on Election Day, you should still vote. Confidence in everything you hear or read should not be complete, but I think confidence that the election system itself is going to tabulate the results that came in and the votes that were cast is a pretty safe bet. Politics can become heated and noisy during an election [year]. But at the end of the day, the American people need to understand that we’re doing all we can to give them the ability to cast their ballots with minimal obstacles and maximum confidence that what happens on Election Day is what the voters voted to do on Election Day.”

A positive COVID-19 test for the Governor of Missouri and the First Lady.

Teresa Parson was the first to test positive Wednesday.

Dr. Randal Williams is the top doctor in Missouri.

He says Governor Parson is showing no symptoms despite testing positive shortly after Teresa Parson did.

People who may have been in close contact with the Governor or the First Lady are now being notified.

Dr. Williams says the number of people fitting that description should be small.

The Governor is isolating at the Governor’s Mansion and the First Lady is isolating back home in Bolivar.

A Missouri Senator is pointing to early October for a new Coronavirus stimulus package, but he also sounds skeptical it’s going to hit the Lake Area by then.

Senator Roy Blunt speaking at the weekly Senate Republicans leadership press conference.

He’s pushing Congress to get a deal done.

Blunt says Congress should not assume people, hospitals and schools can keep moving ahead in an economy that still shows millions without work.

Blunt chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services.

WASHINGTON – At the weekly Senate 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, called on Congress to reach a bipartisan deal on a coronavirus relief package, which would provide much-needed aid for families, businesses, schools, and health care providers.

Following Are Blunt’s Remarks:

“Another job we need to be focused on right now that seems to be slipping away from us is the opportunity to have another package on how to get people back to school, how to get people back to work, how to get people back to child care, and better health.

“I’ve thought and told several of you over the last several weeks, I really thought the first of October was sort of the deadline where we could make that package happen. I hope we can really get focused here, and not assume that somehow the economy can struggle along, that schools can do whatever they need to do, that hospitals will continue to do their work, and other health care providers, if we just simply decide not to act.

“If you take the targeted package that we voted on in the Senate, the problem solvers package put together in the House — of Democrats and Republicans — and even the House Republican proposal, there is clearly a deal there to be had. We don’t need to let this limp along, as we finish out this election year and see then what we can do after the election. We need to deal with that now. I hope we can still figure out a way to take all of those elements that there’s broad agreement on and come up with whatever that agreement is.”

Safe in-person voting and other details on absentee and mail-in voting in the Lake Area will be discussed when Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft arrives in Camdenton this morning.

Camdenton Mayor John McNabb will also be there, and he tells KRMS News it’s all about assuring people in the Lake Area their vote is important and that it will count.

It’s part of a state-wide tour for the Secretary of State and Camdenton was chosen as the best location for a discussion in the Lake of the Ozarks region.

The meeting takes place at city hall between 8:30AM and 9:00AM and it is open to the public.

It’s been a busy year for several lake area businesses.

Dan Zimmerly of WFO Watercraft tells KY 3 TV despite COVID 19, this has been one of his best years ever.

Zimmerly and other business owners say they’re practically sold out for this Labor Day weekend, which usually doesn’t happen.

Russel Burdette of Your Lake Vacation tells KY 3 TV despite COVID 19, this has been the busiest rental season he’s ever seen.

Burdette says the main reason people are flocking to the Lake is the freedoms, including the ability to get out on a boat and social distance from others.

A number of rental companies tell KRMS news that they have already sold out for the Labor Day weekend.

It’s been estimated that over 9 Million people have visited the area so far, many of whom have bought a home and moved here full time.

A member of the White House Coronavirus task force is on a 20-state tour of the Midwest, and Missouri is included on the schedule.

Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx made her way through Lake of the Ozarks on Tuesday while learning more about the increase in positive COVID cases in the south.

Dr. Birx and Governor Mike Parson spoke at a press briefing in Jefferson City.

She says the rise in cases has the attention of the White House Coranavirus Task Force.

She also says the virus started to ramping up in states like Ohio, Indiana and Illinois in June and July.

Despite the uptick in cases of the China Virus, Parson says the state health system is not overrun and the death rate of COVID patients is dropping significantly.

Parson says as the impacts and behavior of COVID-19 continue to shift, they will continue to adapt to the needs of the citizens.

Governor Parson Meets with Dr. Deborah Birx, Cabinet Members, State Health Officials, and Community Stakeholders to Discuss COVID-19 in Missouri

(JEFFERSON CITY, MO) – Today, Governor Mike Parson, Cabinet members, state health officials, and community stakeholders were joined by White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx for a discussion at the Missouri Governor’s Mansion.

Missouri is one of 20 states Dr. Birx has visited over the past six weeks to meet with state officials and provide guidance on COVID-19.

“It was an honor to host Dr. Birx in Missouri today and learn more about where we stand from a national perspective,” Governor Parson said. “I want to thank her, the President, Vice President, and the entire Trump Administration for all they’ve done for both the country and Missouri throughout COVID-19. We appreciate their continued support and guidance during this unprecedented time.”

“We had a productive discussion with Governor Parson along with state and local health officials about how the federal government can continue to partner with Missouri to keep its citizens safe,” Dr. Birx said. “The Administration continues to encourage all Americans to slow the spread of COVID-19 by practicing social distancing including avoiding crowded places, wearing a mask, and washing their hands.”

Dr. Birx originally introduced the “box-in” testing strategy to Missouri officials during a conference call, which focuses heavily on testing, contact tracing, isolation, and quarantine. State officials have aggressively executed this strategy across Missouri, particularly in long-term care facilities.

To date, 468 long-term care facilities in Missouri have experienced at least one positive case of COVID-19 – either among residents, staff, or both. Since increasing testing capabilities, the state has been able to work more closely with facilities that have been heavily impacted by the virus.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) has now helped nearly 400 congregate living facilities implement box-in testing, and more than 115,000 tests have been conducted in long-term care facilities using this strategy.

Since implementing box-in testing, Missouri has seen a significant decrease in its COVID-19 observed case fatality ratio. During April and May, more than seven percent of all observed cases each month in Missouri were fatal. In June, that number dropped to less than two percent. It is now less than half of a percent so far in August.

“Lives are being saved, and for that we thank Dr. Birx and everyone who has worked hard to implement this strategy over and over again throughout Missouri,” Governor Parson said. “As the impacts and behavior of COVID-19 continue to shift, we will continue to adapt to the needs of our citizens.”

The National Media continues its focus on Lake of the Ozarks.

One local mayor answered questions from CBS News this week.

Lake Ozark mayor Gerry Murawski tells KRMS News the interview was not an accusation.

He says many of the major websites like TMZ are a big reason why there are so many tourists coming to the Lake.

Entertainment website TMZ has run two stories about Lake Area hot spots since late May that accuse some local businesses of failing to follow social distancing guidelines.

Camden County Sheriff Tony Helms won re-election on Tuesday and he gives some of the credit to CNN.

Helms went toe-to-toe with Don Lemon after Memorial Day when the network questioned the Lake Area’s response to COVID-19.

Since the start of the year, there have been over 9 Million visitors from all across the United States in the Lake area.