Cape Girardeau County EMA to suspend COVID briefings

For two full years, Cape Girardeau County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) has been hosting regularly scheduled Zoom calls to coordinate pandemic response by the county, Southeast Missouri State University and the cities of Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

This gathering is being suspended until further notice after a scheduled Thursday virtual meeting.

Last week, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Cape Girardeau County is "low risk" for COVID.

At the height of the emergency, county EMA director Mark Winkler held twice-a-week virtual sessions with relevant stakeholders to assess the COVID situation and what steps should be taken — including, but not limited to, vaccination clinics.

Over time, the frequency of the meetings went to weekly. At the start of 2022, they became monthly.

Winkler, while noting the pandemic isn't officially over, said Cape Girardeau County EMA has learned a lot.

"This was our first big test to try to coalesce the whole county and get on the same page with emergency response," he said. "We proved we can do this. We can work together to tackle any situation confronting us."

Charlie Herbst, 2nd District county commissioner, offered praise for the way information sharing has been handled since March 2020.

"Kudos to Mark and his team and all the emergency management folks out there," Herbst said.

Presiding Commissioner Clint Tracy, who filed paperwork last week to seek the Republican nomination for another term in office, commended the networking between governmental bodies about COVID, an effort that, among other things, "dispelled rumors."

1st District Commissioner Paul Koeper said the community needed the cooperation during the COVID scare, "but now it's time to move on."

According to an email sent Friday by Winkler, Zoom briefings about COVID could be revived later "as the need arises."

Schnucks

Schnucks Grocery, including the store at 19 S. Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau, announced effective Monday masks will no longer be required for "customers, teammates and vendors at a majority of locations" — specifically exempting a total of 15 of its 111 outlets from the change in Illinois, Indiana and in the City of St. Louis. The face covering mandate for "teammates and vendors" at the Cape Girardeau store has been lifted.

Customers had not been required to wear masks for some time,

Schnucks management cited the CDC's Friday announcement as the reason for the change in mask policy.