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Health Department drops request for alternate care site

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Two weeks after it began seeking state assistance for an alternate care site for COVID-19 patients, the Springfield-Greene County Health Department and Springfield-Greene County Office of Emergency Management pulled their request.

Health Department Director Katie Towns said in a statement that overwhelmed local hospitals were forced to build their own capacity to handle an overflow of cases amid a recent increase led by the delta variant. Local hospitals have hired additional staff and repurposed existing spaces.

"Because this additional capacity allows us to address our current surge, and knowing that an alternate care site was at least another week away from being operational, there is no longer an immediate need for an alternate care site," Towns said in the statement.

Towns clarified the decision was not made in response to falling cases or hospitalizations. In a news release regarding the alternate care site, Gov. Mike Parson's office indicated new COVID-19 cases in Greene County dropped by 24% in the last seven days compared with the prior week.

"In fact, on Thursday alone 267 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, which is the second-highest number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in a single day to date," Towns said in the statement. "We have sadly lost 32 lives during the month of July alone.

The state a week ago arranged for ambulance strike teams and support of a monoclonal antibody centralized infusion center in response to local officials' request for assistance.

At the time, an unidentified hotel was being considered for an alternate care site to address overcrowding in hospitals.

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