St. Louis regional leaders are recommending closures of all schools and prohibiting gatherings of 50 people or more amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to a joint statement from five regional leaders of bi-state government which was issued at about 6 p.m. on Sunday, March 15.
“After meeting today with 15 health care professionals and other key regional stakeholders, St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, St. Louis County Executive Dr. Sam Page, St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann, St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern, and Madison County Board Chairman Kurt Prenzler have all agreed to take the following proactive measures in an effort to prevent further spread of COVID-19 in the region,” according to the statement.
• Effective immediately and for the next eight weeks, scheduled events and social gatherings with more than 50 people in attendance are prohibited across all five jurisdictions, as recommended by the CDC. The decision will be reevaluated by the region’s top health care professionals, who are in “constant communication.”
• It is recommended that by at least Wednesday, March 18, 2020, all public, private, charter, and parochial schools across all five jurisdictions close until further notice. This decision will be reevaluated by April 3.
• In Missouri, decisions regarding the mandatory closures of restaurants, bars, and nightclubs remain under consideration and are expected to be made soon.
“The COVID-19 outbreak remains a rapidly evolving situation, and available information is fluid,” it states. “In the meantime, it is vitally important that members of the general public continue to practice recommended preventative measures, such as social distancing and robust personal hygiene, as recommended by the CDC.”
The news comes about an hour after Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced the closure of the state’s bars and restaurants from March 16 to March 30 amid the coronavirus outbreak.
“We are seeing the number of COVID-19 cases increase exponentially and in more locations across Illinois,” said Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike. “At this point, it is best to assume that the coronavirus is circulating in your community and you should take the same precautions when interacting with other people that you would when interacting with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. This may seem like an extreme step, but this is how we reduce the number of new cases and prevent the health care system from being overwhelmed.”
Currently, IDPH is reporting 93 cases in 13 counties in Illinois. Cases have occurred in all age ranges and the number of cases that do not have a clear connection to travel or a known COVID-19 case is increasing.
Today, as of 3:30 p.m., the St. Louis County Department of Public Health has 11 tests with pending results, 19 tests have returned negative results and two positive cases, one reported on March 7 and one reported on March 13.
St. Louis city has no positive cases yet, but as of March 12, 20 people were self-quarantined at home, pending test results.
Infectious disease experts have said that social distancing is the fastest way to “flatten the curve.” A Washington Post reporter was able to visually show through graphic simulations potential outcomes of four courses of actions: a free-for-all, enforced quarantine, moderate social distancing and extreme social distancing. He was able to show that moderate social distancing outperformed attempted quarantine and extreme social distancing worked the best. Experts found that reducing the areas to gather helps people to practice social distancing. If this doesn’t happen, the United States could face the overrun hospitals and high number of deaths that other countries like Italy are currently facing.
Some experts have said that people without serious symptoms — especially those in their 20s and 30s — play a substantial role in the spread of the new coronavirus.
“Asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic transmission are a major factor in transmission for Covid-19,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and longtime adviser to the CDC, told CNN. “They’re going to be the drivers of spread in the community.”
Osterholm urged public officials to be clearer about the way the virus is spread.
“At the very beginning of the outbreak, we had many questions about how transmission of this virus occurred. And unfortunately, we saw a number of people taking very firm stances about it was happening this way or it wasn’t happening this way. And as we have continued to learn how transmission occurs with this outbreak, it is clear that many of those early statements were not correct,” he told CNN.
“This is time for straight talk,” he said. “This is time to tell the public what we know and don’t know.”
Dr. Hilary Babcock, infectious disease specialist and a Washington University School of Medicine professor, said during an online town hall forum that the amount of surge that the region will have in our healthcare facilities is driven by the amount that we are able to control the spread in our communities.
“So the community mitigation strategies that you all hear about in terms of canceling large crowds of people and not shaking hands,” Babcock said, “are ways that we try to take this epidemic and flatten the curve that the amount of surge will still be within the capacity of our healthcare system.”
