The Pettis County Health Center announced that there are now 40 cases of the coronavirus in the County at today's COVID-19 Task Force meeting. According to the Health Center that's an increase of 19 cases in the last week.

According to the Pettis County Health Center the County will have to open "slowly and very carefully" and the plan will need to be specific to the County's situation. Pettis County Health says there will be another public health order effective for the County effective May 4.

That's all well and good, but what are the details? Will there still be a County Stay At Home order after May 4 because COVID-19 cases keep increasing? Will all businesses be open after May 4? What is the actual plan going forward?

There actually is a plan the Pettis County Health Center put together for cosmetology type businesses and tattoo parlors to re-open. And the Sedalia Democrat is reporting there will be a similar plan for food establishments to re-open which will be posted by Friday. So there is a plan, it just hasn't been clearly articulated to the public and easy to find.

Reporter Hope Lecchi of the Democrat actually got some good information from JoAnn Martin, Administrator of The Pettis County Health Center for her article "Guidelines released for business reopenings in Pettis County".

Martin told the Democrat she hopes restaurants can re-open the third week of May, and according to the Health Center's plan for re-opening of cosmetology type businesses and tattoo parlors the projected re-opening date is May 6.

Additionally all businesses will have social distancing measures. And Martin told the Democrat that The Pettis County Health Center will not hesitate to implement stricter restrictions if County cases continue to increase.

For a more complete picture of how the Health Center is re-opening the County I'd recommend reading Lecchi's article in the Democrat.

The Pettis County COVID-19 Taskforce and The Pettis County Health Center has failed at getting clear, concise, details to the public about what's happening after May 4. Nowhere is that failure more apparent then after reading Lecchi's article in the Sedalia Democrat.

It contains potential opening dates. Some details about continued social distancing. And a little information regarding how COVID-19 case counts might impact the re-opening of the County. A lot of this information should be disseminated by The Pettis County Health Center without the prompting of a reporter. Yet much of it isn't being made clear on the Health Center's site or Facebook page, obvious places people might search for that information. I think that's a problem.

 

 

 

 

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