The letter, which was signed by Mercy Hospital President Jeremy Drinkwitz, Freeman Health CEO Paula Baker, Mercy Clinic President Dr. Tracy Godfrey, Dr. Marc Hahn, CEO of Kansas City University, Stephanie Brady, Community Clinic executive director, Access Family Care CEO Don McBride and Jasper County Health Department Administrator Tony Moehr, warned of the dangers that lie ahead.
"In recent days, those number have spiked dramatically. More ventilators are being used in our hospitals than ever before.
"We are now concerned about the possibility of the number of hospitalizations climbing even higher and what that would mean for our capacity and ability to handle both COVID-19 and the myriad other reasons people end up in one of our hospital beds."
The City of Joplin's COVID-19 dashboard reports 100 coronavirus patients, the highest number recorded to date, at Mercy, Freeman and Landmark hospitals.
The letter noted that during the time Joplin had a mask mandate in place, the numbers of patients at local hospitals remained manageable and that a mandate is needed for the entire area.
"People follow rules and they follow leaders. We urge you to take the lead on this issue and ultimately enact another mask mandate for the cities of Joplin, Webb City, Carl Junction, Carthage, Neosho and all of Jasper and Newton counties. This is for the explicit purpose of reducing the spread of COVID-19 in our community, which we know is the only way to reduce the number of sick people in our hospital. Wait times in the ER are getting longer and availability of hospital beds in our community and others are diminishing."
If you are on city council and pass bills based on staff recommendation you have no argument not to pass a mask ordinance based on health care leaders recommendation. The citizens will be split the health care leaders are not
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