ST. LOUIS — Mayor Lyda Krewson and ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Executive Sam Page hope to provide some details later this week on how their respective stay-at-home orders could be rescinded around the middle of this month.
“We’re working very hard right now on what that’s going to look like,â€Â Krewson said in a Facebook Live session Monday afternoon.
“We expect to have something for you … by the end of this week that ºüÀêÊÓƵ city and county think might be a viable way to get started†on gradually reopening the local economy “to some extent.â€
Krewson, however, reiterated that decisions on when to end the stay-at-home orders will be based on whether statistics on COVID-19 cases were headed in the right direction, such as a decrease in hospitalizations.
Page said in a tweet that he had talked with Krewson on Monday morning and “we both have targeted mid-May to consider relaxing public health orders.†The two had previously said they’d reconsider their orders then.
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Krewson and Page commented on the day Gov. Mike Parson’s statewide stay-at-home order expired. Four Missouri counties on the outer rim of the metro area are following Parson’s lead.
Page added in his tweet that he and Krewson will be closely watching the regional pandemic task force’s report later Monday on “how hospitals did over the weekend.â€
Page also referred in his tweet to working with the mayor on details of a reopening plan. He said he hoped those could be released “by the middle of this week.â€
"The city of ºüÀêÊÓƵ and our region here has two-thirds of the cases in the state of Missouri. There are other counties in Missouri who only have a few cases...what we have here is a situation where one size does not fit all."
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom)
ºüÀêÊÓƵ Mayor on Missouri reopening.
Krewson urged people watching her Facebook Live update, in which she took questions from the public, to be patient.
“I know it’s hard and I know your patience is wearing thin. … I understand that, my own patience is wearing thin,†she said. “But we’ve got to be firm here and continue the stay-at-home order a while longer.â€
One woman asked if she'd be able to have a small wedding in the city in June.
"I don't know what the gathering size will be in June," she said, referring to potential restrictions that might be in place then. "Those are guidelines we haven't all agreed on yet."
Krewson said maybe the maximum size on a gathering will be 50 by then but she emphasized that she was just guessing on that.
Krewson also discussed the continued stay-at-home order in a CNN interview Monday.
"The city of ºüÀêÊÓƵ and our region here has two-thirds of the cases in the state of Missouri. There are other counties in Missouri who only have a few cases...what we have here is a situation where one size does not fit all."
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom)
ºüÀêÊÓƵ Mayor on Missouri reopening.
“We are leaving the stay-at-home order in place for another week or two weeks,â€Â the mayor said. “We haven’t determined the exact date (for modifying it) but we think somewhere around mid-May.â€
The mayor said on CNN that having 154 new COVID-19 cases reported in the city Saturday and Sunday “is very concerning to us.†The 97 recorded Sunday in the city was a record number reported in a single day.
But Krewson said the recent uptick may be due to “being able to do a little bit more testing in the last week or so.â€
She said, however, that the area remains “extremely short†in testing capacity.
Updated at 4 p.m.