2020 IN REVIEW: COVID-19 pandemic dominated the news in 2020

Saturday, December 26, 2020

This is the first in a two-part series of the top stories in the Standard Democrat area for 2020.

In coming up with our top stories of the year, we didn’t have to look farther than the global COVID-19 pandemic. Here are some of the top local stories involved with the pandemic.

COVID-19 reaches the area

As March arrived, so did the threat of COVID-19. When the month began, the first cases began showing up in Missouri and concern began to grow. Locally, hospitals were preparing for the worst.

“We are prepared for this outbreak, and even with the pandemic, we’ve been preparing since December for this,” said Eric Slaughter, infection prevention/safety and emergency preparedness coordinator for Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston in a story that ran in the Standard Democrat March 12. “We have daily briefings with administrators at the hospital and our clinical leaders.”

The first case in Scott County was reported March 18 and by the end of the month, other cases had appeared locally. The first local death related to the virus was reported by Scott County on April 17.

Stay-at-home order

In an effort to further combat the coronavirus, Scott County adopted a stay-at-home order on April 2.

“We hope the citizens understand that we are doing what we feel is best to protect citizens’ safety and health,” Scott County Prosecuting Attorney Amanda Oesch said. “There is not a fool-proof plan. We all have to work together as a community and county to help stop the spread of COVID-19.”

The following day, the Sikeston City Council unanimously approved a stay-at-home order for the entire city of Sikeston.

“This ordinance will mirror that of Scott County but will include all of Sikeston so it will be the same for all (Sikeston residents),” said Jon Douglass, Sikeston city manager.

The ordinance ordered all residents of Sikeston to stay at home unless they are traveling for “essential activities,” such as traveling to work at an essential job or picking up groceries or supplies.

Later that afternoon, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson issued a statewide stay-at-home order, joining Missouri with about 40 other states already requiring residents to avoid going out except for essential purposes. The state, county and city-wide orders all took effect on April 6.

The stay-at-home order was extended through May 3, and on May 4 was lifted so, according to Parson: “people are going to go back to work” so the state’s economy can begin to recover from the coronavirus shutdown.

Across the country, social isolation aimed at slowing the coronavirus devastated the economy. Nearly 22 million Americans sought unemployment benefits in April, by far the worst stretch of U.S. job losses on record.

Schools are closed; begin remote learning

As the virus continued to progress, schools canceled classes in March and many began remote learning with hopes of returning after a short layoff. That all changed on April 9 when Parson ordered all state schools to close for in-person classes for the remainder of the school year.

“COVID-19 has presented unprecedented challenges for all of us and the education community is certainly no different,” said Missouri Commissioner of Education Margie Vandeven in a statement. “The recommendation made to Governor Parson today was not made lightly. This decision was made to continue protecting the health and safety of our students and school staff members. We know, maybe now more than ever, just how important our public schools are…how critical the services are that they provide their local communities…and how important the work is that our educators do each and every day for our children.”

Schools returned to classes in August, but looked much different than in previous years. In some schools, like New Madrid County Central, students were in-person just two days a week, while others distance learning the other days. Other schools returned to classes with students socially distanced and wearing masks.

During the course of the fall, most schools had short spells where they had to move to distance learning due to an increase in cases before returning to in-person classes.

Helping out

A stimulus package was passed in early April and beginning on April 13 the delivery of Economic Impact Payments into bank accounts began.

Most U.S. residents received the Economic Impact Payment of $1,200 for an individual or head of household filers, and $2,400 for married filing jointly.

Nearly 34,100 small businesses in Missouri received more than $6.4 billion to help support their employees and business operations affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The funds were made available to small businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program, a $349 billion relief measure included in the CARES Act passed by Congress on March 27.

Locally, people stepped up to help each other as well.

During the pandemic, the demand for food assistance has increased between 60 and 100 percent across SEMO Food Bank’s service area which includes 16 counties, according to Joey Keys, president and CEO of Southeast Missouri Food Bank.

One of the food pantries the SEMO Food Bank operates is the Good Neighbor Pantry in Sikeston. Lisa Church, chief advancement officer for the SEMO Food Bank, said in September that on average about 400 families a month came through the Good Neighbor Pantry before the pandemic. After the pandemic hit, Church said the following month they served 680 families, followed by 800 families the next month, peaking in May with 994 families coming through to get food.

The Sikeston Board of Municipal Utilities Board approved a $50 month rebate for all residential and small general service customers credited on their next two month bills at a special meeting on April 8.

Sugarmill Distillery, which was making whiskey and vodka, began producing Hex hand sanitizer, a product that is not the standard traditional gel that most people are accustomed to using. Hector Lemus, manager at La Ruleta, decided to offer meals to those who needed them on Saturdays and challenged other businesses on social media to do the same. Grecian Steak House took him up on the challenge and meals were delivered.

Events canceled, changed

The pandemic brought with it many cancelations, including churches canceling Easter services.

Easter Sunday fell right in the middle of the stay-at-home order, forcing churches to change how they delivered their Easter Sunday service. In most cases, churches streamed their services live on the internet while others came up with alternative methods to have Easter Sunday services, including parking lot services.

But Easter Sunday wasn’t the only thing canceled or postponed.

Proms for many local high schools were canceled and graduations were impacted as well. After canceling the prom, Sikeston R-6 decided to move back the Sikeston graduation ceremony to June 11. It was held at Sikeston Public Schools Stadium with seniors socially distanced and limited attendance from family.

Other schools transformed their graduation ceremonies as well, with some, such as Dexter, holding drive-thru ceremonies.

Many other events were held later, including the statewide election, originally scheduled for April 7, which was moved to June 2. The annual Sikeston Regional Chamber Awards Banquet, scheduled for the spring, was moved to the fall and held outdoors behind the city offices. Instead of a banquet, it was a meet-and-greet event with award winners honored individually and streamed on social media.

Local traditions such as the Kow Pasture Klassic, the annual Independence Day celebration in New Madrid, the annual Christmas Parade in Portageville were just a few of the many, many events that were canceled in 2020.

The annual Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo was held but three of the originally scheduled acts withdrew from the event. Chris Lane (Wednesday), Ashley McBride (Thursday) and ZZ Top (Friday) all pulled out of the rodeo and were quickly replaced. Nelly electrified a sold-out crowd on Wednesday night while Aaron Lewis performed Thursday and Cody Johnson entertained in front of a large crowd on Friday night.

Pandemic continues

While two vaccines were approved in December, the general public is not expected to receive the vaccines until late winter or early spring.

Still, the virus continues to spread locally. On Dec. 18 in Scott County, there were 822 active cases with 2,425 having recovered along with 59 deaths since the pandemic began.

As of Monday, New Madrid County reported 64 active cases with 1,692 out of quarantine and 30 deaths reported while Mississippi County had 79 active cases and 15 deaths with 1,004 out of isolation.

Statewide on Wednesday morning, there had been 373,580 positive cases with 5,255 deaths.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: