ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — St. Louis County announced the limits on outdoor gatherings will end at the end of this month.
All businesses in St. Louis County will be allowed to reopen on June 15 and two weeks later on June 29, all businesses will be allowed to raise capacity limits from 25% to 50%. Restrictions on gatherings will also ease on June 29.
Outdoor gatherings will have no restrictions. They can continue with social distancing, wearing masks and staying 6-feet apart.
Gatherings will no longer be limited to 10 or less. Crowd sizes will be dictated by the capacity of the fire code of each facility, Page said. Gatherings include weddings, funerals and outdoor reunions.
Businesses will be allowed to have tighter restrictions if they choose.
Some park pavilions will have restrictions on capacity, Page said.
“Gatherings of any size still bring with it a certain amount of risk and it’s important that we do respect public health orders – wearing a mask and social distancing, these are important steps that always must be taken to protect everyone that’s at an event,” Page said.
Other special events including concerts and art fairs will need to have their plans approved by the St. Louis County Department of Public Health.
Page was also asked if he thinks there’s systemic racism in the St. Louis County Police Department.
“There’s systemic racism in our country – that’s a conversation we’re having in our country, in our community and every institution – health care, education and in public safety – I’m sure there’s systemic racism in our police department, the police department is part of our community”
“That doesn’t mean that every interaction between two people is racially charged, but no one can argue that racism doesn’t exist in our community. We have to work past that and we have to work through that and the conversation we’re having now is how we’re going to do that.”
Page has been holding COVID-19 briefings since the pandemic began.
Earlier this week, he announced the county's ability on COVID-19 testing has expanded.
“Starting Monday, we encourage anyone in St. Louis County who has frequent contact with those outside of your household to be tested for COVID-19 – even if you don’t have any symptoms or you’ve had no contact with anyone who is known to be COVID-19 positive.”
The county will offer free testing at its Berkeley clinic and it’s Sunset Hills clinic. Page said to call 314-615-0574 for an appointment. He also said that the county can test 150 asymptomatic people per day and that the test results should be back in 48 hours.