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SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) – Springfield City Council has decided it will vote on an emergency one-reading ordinance at the meeting on Monday, April 5. If the order is approved, Springfield will move on to the next phase of its recovery plan later this month, April 16.
Mayor Ken McClure says it’s one more step towards a light at the end of the tunnel.
“I’m incredibly optimistic, but at the same time, I’m encouraging our community, let’s stay the course and see it through,” said Mayor McClure. “We are so close.”
The yellow phase has three thresholds:
- Less than 40 new cases of COVID-19 per day
- Fewer than 50 people hospitalized in COVID-19 isolation
- 25% of the population aged 16 and over fully immunized
Springfield-Greene County Health Department Acting Health Director Katie Towns says two of the three thresholds must be met to consider lifting the restrictions.
“We’ve actually already hit the 28-day threshold that we set, which is mainly attributed to the number of cases and hospitalizations below the thresholds for this yellow phase,” Towns says.
Towns says nearly 17% of the community is fully vaccinated, but it’s not as high as the health department was hoping.
“We’ve started to see some opportunities going unfulfilled and it’s worrying,” Towns says.
Cities plan to reach the vaccination threshold by April 16.
“We have all of these arms supplies right now that will get us closer to that 25% threshold plus this big event on April 8 and 9 where we plan to vaccinate 10,000 people,” Towns said.
Towns said during next week’s mega immunization event in the state of Missouri, she expects about 3-4% of the community to be immunized.
The yellow phase on the road to recovery will remove occupancy restrictions but will continue to mask. As for mass gatherings, the maximum capacity is 500 people, but if the space has enough square feet, this number can be increased.
Mayor McClure says he still calls for caution, but it will allow more people to support local businesses.
“We hope this will continue to help our businesses grow to where they were before the pandemic and take appropriate action and I believe it will,” said Mayor McClure.
Mayor McClure says this is considered an emergency order, so it can be done in one reading.
The current ordinance is expected to expire on April 9, but if city council approves the new one on Monday, it will keep the current guidelines in place until April 16.
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