Camden County announces it will rescind its stay-at-home order, state order still in place

Governor Mike Parson made it clear in his statewide order. Missourians cannot gather in groups of ten or more, residents need to stay six feet apart from others and restaurant dining rooms had to be closed to only carry out and delivery.

Camden County wanted to go a bit further.

Barbershops, hair and nail salons, tattoo parlors and similar businesses had to close, and boaters had to immediately leave a lake restaurant's dock after picking up food.

Now, that's changing.

"It was time to repeal our county ordinance," said Camden County Presiding Commissioner Greg Hasty.

Hasty pointed to his county's number of cases of COVID-19 as a reason why now is the time to scale back limitations.

As of this morning, there have been 34 positive cases. 11 are still active. There's been one death.

"Even thought its been tough on our businesses and tough on our citizens, they've done such a good job, that the result that we had, we've been successful," Hasty said.

The statewide order is still in place through May 3rd, and is still in effect in Camden County despite the other restrictions being lifted.

It's caused confusion for the Mayor of Camdenton when it comes to what can or cannot open back up - like eating at restaurants which have outdoor and patio seating.

That was only banned in the county's order.

"One of my biggest concerns is the fairness of businesses in the county and businesses in the city," said Camdenton Mayor John McNabb. "We want them to have the same level playing field, and there seems to be confusion on that."

McNabb says the best thing to do now before businesses really start to reopen is to listen to Governor Parson's guidelines.

"Hopefully in the next day or so we'll have a universal message for everyone and we'll be able to eliminate some of this confusion," McNabb said.

He's also calling for more transparency, as he says he was not informed of the news release announcing the repeal of Camden County's order until reporters from several outlets began asking.

The commissioners say they are not worried about second home owners from Kansas City or St Louis bringing COVID-19 to the lake, because those homeowners have already made trips back and forth, and there has not been a spike in cases.

If there is a future spike, the commission says it can revisit its order.

ORIGINAL STORY:

The Camden County Commission has announced it will rescind the county's stay-at-home order after the three commissioners vote at 2:00 p.m.

This comes after the Camden County Commission sent a letter to Missouri Governor Mike Parson asking him to reevaluate the statewide stay-at-home order.

In that letter, the commission said "adhering to the current May 4th order is already creating hardships on many of our residents and businesses." The commission also asked the governor to not extend the current order past May 4.

Governor Parson announced Wednesday he was sticking to the May 4 goal to reopen the state's economy.

"Almost every business in the state of Missouri will be able to open their doors," Parson said. "People will go back to work. They'll be some guidelines."

In a news release announcing they'd rescind their own ordinance Thursday, the Camden County Commission said it hopes citizens continue to comply with the state's stay-at-home order, practice social distancing, and continue to follow hand washing and mask wearing guidelines.

"We understand the hardship this has exerted on everyone, both financially and emotionally," the commission said in its news release. "It is through everyone's hardships that this venture has been successful. Our numbers are low, even in light of the large number of second homeowners and visitors."

As of Tuesday, the Camden County Health Department was reporting 35 total cases of COVID-19. At the time, one of those cases remained hospitalized. One patient has died.