Health Commissioner's Order No. 8

This Order No. 8 shall replace previous Health Commissioner Orders 1-7 upon the occurrence of benchmarks specified herein. This Order No. 8 shall become effective at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, May 18, 2020 and will continue to be in effect until it is extended, rescinded, superseded, or amended in writing by me.

My intent is to ensure that the maximum number of people and businesses take prudent precautions to reduce the exposure to, and slow the spread of, COVID-19. All provisions of this Order shall be interpreted to effectuate this intent.

When making the decision to issue this Order No. 8, the Health Commissioner considered the current status of the following “Benchmarks”:

1. Decreased Transmission as demonstrated by:
   1. A sustained reduction in seven-day rolling average hospital admissions rate for COVID-19,
   2. A decreased and stable Ro(an objective measure of infectivity and transmission), or
   3. A consensus opinion that the COVID-19 transmission rate is adequately suppressed, taking into account the impact of increased testing and outbreaks occurring at long term care facilities or similar institutions.
2. Healthcare Demand, demonstrated by confirmation from the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force that:
   1. Local healthcare systems are not operating under crisis standards of care; and
   2. Healthcare systems possess adequate PPE.
3. Testing - Testing available for all symptomatic persons presenting to a hospital or ambulatory care site.
4. Contact Tracing - Capacity and capability to perform effective tracing, isolation and quarantine is affirmed.
   
   These Benchmarks have been achieved, and this order is being adopted, in order to:

1. provide requirements and guidance for individual behavior;
2. allow certain businesses to continue operating conditioned on compliance with general and business-specific operating standards and guidance included in, and attached to this Order;
3. allow certain other business to reopen conditioned on compliance with general and business-specific operating standards and guidance included in, and attached to this Order;
4. allow exceptions to this Order No. 8 as I may specifically designate;
5. continue to prohibit certain other businesses from operating until a future point in time after continued monitoring and analysis of the Benchmarks and subject to the issuance of a future Order of the Health Commissioner; and
6. inform the public and businesses that the City and the Department of Health will continue to monitor the status of the Benchmarks and anticipate updating the standards and guidance to individuals and businesses.