KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Views on how to fight COVID-19 vary among state and local leaders as the delta variant continues to spread across Missouri.
Missouri's largest cities, Kansas City and St. Louis, have announced mask mandates as COVID cases rise.
On Twitter, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson disagreed with mandates.
"From the very beginning of this pandemic, we have recognized the importance of local control; however, re-imposing mask mandates regardless of vaccination status is WRONG and goes against current CDC guidelines," Parson said in the tweet.
During an interview with FOX News, Parson said conflicting rules surrounding mandates in the St. Louis area leads to confusion in the public.
On Friday, Parson visited Kansas City, Missouri, for a ceremonial bill signing. After the event, the governor addressed whether or not his leadership has contributed to any confusion during the pandemic.
"I've been consistent with that message ever since the beginning of COVID-19, I mean that message hasn't changed," Parson said. "The problem I think is what we're doing right now, we're talking about masked mandates when we should be talking about the vaccine. That's the one that we should be promoting out to every day and we should put our energy in that."
KCMO Mayor Quinton Lucas also took the time to address the state's response to the pandemic.
"We have so many challenges today because we haven't taken bold and decisive action," Lucas said critiquing the state's response to the pandemic. "I think that you can have multiple safeguards to make sure places are safe. I think that Kansas City's mask order is something that was actually fairly easy to comply with."
Lucas said the mask mandates in his city as well as in St. Louis send a responsible message.
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said he would file a lawsuit against KCMO to stop the indoor mask mandate.
Meanwhile, Kansas City's mandate goes into effect on Monday.
