Cape Girardeau County Commission 9 a.m. Monday 1 Barton Square, Jackson Approval of minutes n Minutes from April 8 meeting n Minutes from closed session meeting from April 8 Communications/reports -- other elected officials n COVID-19 Update: In an effort to keep Cape Girardeau County residents safe and aware regarding the status of the virus, Emergency Management Agency (EMA) director Mark Winkler will be issuing an update at County Commission meetings. ...

COVID-19’s effect on education, and learning how schools and students dealt with the pandemic, brought U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt to Cape Girardeau on Wednesday. Blunt visited Central High School to be a part of a discussion with teachers, administrators and staff, and other local officials about the ongoing pandemic’s impact on the Cape Girardeau School District...

State-sponsored community COVID-19 testing events will begin at selected locations around the state, with Cape Girardeau among the sites. The events will occur Sundays in Cape Girardeau -- April 25, May 2 and 16 and June 6 and 20 -- from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on these days at Red Show Barn, 410 Kiwanis Drive in Arena Park...

The Salvation Army will be hosting the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center for a COVID-19 vaccination clinic from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. There will be a limited amount of vaccinations available, so those wishing to receive a vaccine dose must register to receive an appointment. To register, call The Salvation Army at (573) 335-7000, or sign up at The Salvation Army, 701 Good Hope St. in Cape Girardeau...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Missouri's Republican-led Senate on Wednesday voted to ban so-called vaccine passports in the state. Senators voted 26-7 in favor of a wide-ranging bill that includes a ban on vaccine passports to travel in the state. Vaccine passports are documentation showing travelers have been vaccinated against COVID-19 or recently tested negative for the virus. Technology companies and travel-related trade groups are developing and testing out vaccine passports to encourage travel...

Ambulances filled with breathless patients lined up in Brazil as nations around the world set new records Thursday for COVID-19 deaths and new coronavirus infections. The disease surged even in some countries that have kept the virus in check. In the United States, Detroit leaders began making a plan to knock on every door to persuade people to get vaccine shots...

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Missouri's health department Tuesday announced it identified the first case of a new virus variant in the state. Missouri's Department of Health and Senior Services announced a Jackson County resident tested positive for a COVID-19 variant first identified in South Africa...

Nearly half of new coronavirus infections nationwide are in just five states -- a situation that is putting pressure on the federal government to consider changing how it distributes vaccines by sending more doses to hot spots. New York, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey together reported 44% of the nation's new COVID-19 infections, or nearly 197,500 new cases, in the latest available seven-day period, according to state health agency data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. ...

ST. LOUIS -- After weeks of declining COVID-19 transmissions across Missouri, experts worry the drop has stalled and caseloads could start to rise again. "Every time you think this pandemic is going to keep going down, it throws you a new curve ball," Dr. Alex Garza, the head of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch...