St. Louis City and County will begin reopening Monday, two weeks after new statewide guidelines were issued that left it to local authorities to make their own decisions on restarting business, and other aspects of life, following the COVID-19 close down.
The rules for the two jurisdictions will largely be the same, though with slight differences, including the city allowing all bars to reopen with less restrictions than the county.
Businesses, including restaurants and retailers, will be enforcing social distancing rules and taking other measures as the restrictions in place for weeks are eased.
As the area, state and country begins to re-open, some experts have questioned whether the mass shut down was the right strategy to adopt given the damage done to the economy.
Many others, including public health experts, believe it was absolutely necessary.
"Drastic measures were the reason that it was contained," said Larry Jones, executive director of the Missouri Center for Public Health Excellence.
"No one likes to have to shut down business, no one likes to take these measures but this is such a contagious virus that drastic measures had to be taken," Jones told the St. Louis Record.
Nobel Prize winner Michael Levitt, a professor of structural biology at Stanford School of Medicine, believes the "indiscriminate" lockdown was a "huge mistake."
"There is no doubt in my mind, that when we come to look back on this, the damage done by lockdown will exceed any saving of lives by a huge factor," Levitt told unherd.com, an online magazine.
He argues that a “smart lock down” policy is much more effective, with focused measures that included, for example, primarily protecting elderly people. Levitt is an advocate of herd immunity, citing Sweden as an example, a country that did not introduce a severe lock down, with elementary schools, restaurants and shops remaining open. While the per capita confirmed infection rate death toll is higher than in some countries in Europe, it is lower than others.
But others suggest it has benefited from other countries locking down, while both its citizen's health and health system are among the best in the world. Its care homes have seen a large number of deaths.
Brad Jones, Missouri state director of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), said most small businesses understood why the orders were put in place.
"I am sure there were business that really resented that they have had to close," Jones told the St. Louis Record. "But overall this was a prudent thing to do."
On reopening, Jones said everyone at local and state is grappling with the "problem playing out across the country, trying to figure the best thing to do."
Some businesses are going to be better prepared to reopen than others, with each a little different, but the general approach will be to exercise "some common sense and a willingness to keep customers and employees safe."
Guidelines for city and county businesses and residents were drawn over the last number of weeks in coordination with representatives of retail, hotels, restaurants, office buildings, hair salons, massage therapists, manufacturers and construction workers.
In Missouri, 10,456 are confirmed infected, with 576 as of Sunday. In St. Louis County, 3,667 are confirmed with 246 deaths, while 1.408 are infected and 71 dead in the city.
Jones, the public health advocate, said the position of the state to reopening is to leave it up to local governments, with the argument that they know what is best for their own residents.
"That has put enormous pressure on public health departments," Jones said, adding that workers in these departments have done a superb job with limited resources. He noted that Missouri is close to the bottom in the nation for public health funding.
Jones said it will become clear in the next few weeks whether Missouri is opening up too soon, but understands what politicians must weigh, the damage to the economy with stopping people getting sick and dying.
Increased testing and tracing will remain highly important, while the public must take it seriously, Jones said, adding that what no one wants to happen is a resurgence, with the potential of another shut down. It is an experiment, and it is not clear what will happen, Jones said.