KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said he doesn’t put “much stock” in New York’s response to his state’s growing number of coronavirus cases.
Last week, New York added Missouri to its mandatory quarantine list, along with nine other states.
“They’re a disaster to start off with the way they’ve handled their situation,” Parson said of New York during a press briefing on Monday. “So, I think probably people are smart enough in this state, probably they don’t want to go to New York, unless you just had to go there for some reason or another.”
States that have a positive test rate more than 10 per 100,000 residents or 10 percent or more positive tests in a seven-day rolling average are added to New York’s list.
As of Monday, Missouri had reported 44,429 COVID-19 cases, including 1,244 deaths, according to data compiled by 41 Action News.
“The travel situation, I think people will pretty well figure that out,” Parson said. “You know when you look around us, when you look at these coronavirus cases going up, you can look at Texas, you can look at Arkansas, look at Illinois – all those were escalating for weeks before us. All of that’s a concern, but I wouldn’t put too much stock into what New York has to say about Missouri to be right honest about it.”
New York’s COVID-19 cases have fallen since the peak in late March and early April to the point that on Sunday, only 1.06 percent of the more than 57,000 tests conducted returned positive results.
Kansas also has been added to New York’s mandatory quarantine list.
