KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There is no way to know when the novel coronavirus made its way to Missouri, according to state leaders.
“Nobody knows when the coronavirus started in Missouri,” Gov. Mike Parson said during a news conference on Tuesday. “Anybody with common sense would know that.”
The first positive test was reported on March 7, according to Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Director Dr. Randall Williams. However, he said when people were asked when they were symptomatic, that date is recorded by the state. Data released recently by the state now shows there were at least 10 cases of the coronavirus in Missouri as early as February.
“We have no evidence that people were positive on Feb. 4 or Feb. 12,” Williams said on Tuesday. “We just presented to you that they said they were symptomatic that far back.”
Williams also said that the “senior leadership team” did not know the state was combining “serological testing,” which measures the antibodies in the blood when fighting an infection, with positive test results.
An order was issued Jan. 27 stating that COVID-19 was a “reportable disease,” which Williams said included serology and polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, testing. The first serology test in the state, according to Williams, occurred on April 4. PCR testing had been taking place since February.
“I made it very clear to our staff that, having practiced medicine for 30 years, we could not conflate the two … and that message was heard and received, I thought,” Williams said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Williams, has since said that shouldn’t occur and Missouri staffers spent the weekend “backing out the data” to determine how many serological tests had been given and when they were given. The majority have been since May 11, Williams said.
“When we put out the serological testing separately, that was part of the information we put out,” Williams said.
