Community sampling tests coming to Cape Girardeau

COVID community sampling efforts, aimed at learning more about the prevalence of COVID-19 transmission, will be conducted over the next 7-10 days in six additional Missouri counties, including Cape Girardeau.

Dr. Randall W. Williams, director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS), gave special note to Cape Girardeau County in remarks Thursday at Governor Parson's media briefing in Jefferson City.

"We picked Cape Girardeau because it's a hospital hub that a lot of people from surrounding counties would naturally go to for testing," said Williams, DHSS chief since 2017.

Williams said public health officials from each of the counties reached out to his department asking for "robust" testing.

Serology surveillance tests, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), look for blood antibodies, essentially proteins which can fight off infections. Antibodies signal the presence of a previous COVID infection.

Williams said Perry County did surveillance testing about three weeks ago.

"We're going to do more extensive testing in Perry (County)," said Williams, without elaboration.

Williams said DHSS has already done surveillance testing in 13 Missouri counties to-date.

Nine people tested positive out of 3,000 people receiving the specific test.

Governor Mike Parson, who lifted the state's stay-at-home order May 4, will hold his next COVID briefing Tuesday.

Parson remains on-message about the close connection between public health and the state's near-term economic future.

"We cannot fully recover economically without increasing our testing numbers," said Parson Thursday, who restated the state's goal of at least 7,500 tests per day.

"The more testing we do, the more data and knowledge we have on the situation in Missouri," Parson said.

"We make our decisions on Missouri-specific data," he added.

According to a DHSS media release, Missouri residents who wish to be tested with a nasal swab to see if they have an active COVID-19 infection may come to Arena Park in Cape Girardeau on June 5, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. DHSS said Missouri residency is only requirement to take part in the free screening.

Online pre-registration is encouraged at health.mo.gov/communitytest.

Those without online access may call 877-435-8411.

People who desire testing do not have to live in the county in which they are tested and do not have to be experiencing symptoms in order to participate.

According to the state-maintained COVID-19 website dashboard, there are 11,340 confirmed COVID cases in Missouri with 172,946 tests conducted. A total of 661 have died with 479 deaths in St. Louis city and county alone.