(Park Hills, Mo) - A third confirmed case of Coronavirus has been announced by the Executive Director of the St Francois County Health Department, Amber Elliot. She made the announcement during a press conference Wednesday afternoon via remote teleconferencing.
Elliot says there are others that have been tested from the wedding, however, those results are not back yet. She says it has been diffcult to obtain an exact amount of people that attended the wedding at Heritage Hall in Bonne Terre. The health department has contacted approximately 50 households so far, but there are others they have not been able to contact due to not having enough information. Elliot says other counties in the area have been contacted about residents that attended the wedding in Bonne Terre as well.
Elliot says so far, the three cases are not connected, meaning there's no evidence of "community spread" within the county. She says the evidence of "community spread", which means no known reason for a person to have contacted the virus, would be a threshold where a "shelter in place" order would be given by county authories that would impact both county residents and those within munincipalities of the nearly 67,000 people in the county as a whole.
Elliot says at this time it looks like current models are showing locally the "curve" of the virus infections may happen in mid to late April at this point, basically a month away. As far as how many cases St Francois County could expect to get of Coronavirus, Elliot says that's like looking into a crystal ball. She says she's confident there will be more cases, but it's not known how many others.
A drive through testing spot in Farmington near BJC Parkland Health Center is being developed. It is expected to be open within the coming days, once the details of traffic flow and other planning details have been finalized.