Per Governor Mike Parson, Missouri’s stay-at-home order went into effect on April 6th and was lifted on May 4th. (St. Louis City and St. Louis County delayed their reopening until April 18th.)

Since the stay was lifted, I’ve written updates (here and here) regarding the COVID-19 numbers, largely to track them and see if they demonstrate a noticeable spike, as many have predicted they would. Thus far, they have not.

As of the morning of May 31st, (per Worldometers), Missouri has 13,356 total cases (placing it 29th among the states and Washington D.C.) and 784 deaths (placing it 22nd.)  In terms of cases per million persons, Missouri ranks 40th. In terms of deaths per million, it ranks 26th. The State ranks 24th in total tests, but only 46th in terms of tests per million persons. (Relative to Weeks 2 and 3, Missouri remains largely in the middle of the pack, though it has dropped three spots in cases per million and one spot in deaths per million.)

Though the number of daily new cases has remained steady in the past four weeks (hovering between 1 and 2 %), over the past two days, there has been a marked increase in the number of deaths. Between May 4th and May 29th, the state averaged 13-14 deaths-per-day. In the past two days, there have been 69 deaths reported. Whether this is a trend remains to be seen.

The crowded pool party at Lake of the Ozarks last weekend cause quite a stir and speculation that an outbreak may result. Thus far, one person known to have attended the party has since tested positive, though health officials stated they believe that person was already infected at the time, though not yet symptomatic. (And the question remains as to whether they passed the virus along to anyone else.) The amount of tongue-clucking over that invites the question as to what sorts of numbers we may see following the protests (and riots) that have erupted over this past weekend in and around St. Louis and Kansas City following the tragic death of George Floyd.

I’m going to be Pollyanna here for a minute and hope we don’t see any appreciable difference. Not just for the obvious reason that I don’t want to see anyone else get sick, much less die from COVID-19, but also because that translates into support for continuing with the re-opening of our economy and re-building of our lives.