Missouri reported the highest number of new coronavirus cases in one day Monday — the same day that the state reopened for some businesses.
The state saw an increase of 368 COVID-19 cases — the most since the pandemic hit — and six more deaths due to the illness, according to St. Louis’ KMOV-TV.
The rise in cases was compared with 319 new cases just one day earlier.
The news came as an outbreak at a Missouri pork processing plant resulted in 373 workers contracting the illness. Most of the employees were asymptomatic, the company said.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said that random testing showed that the virus was not extremely widespread.
“We did roughly 3,000 tests over the State of Missouri randomly over the weekend and of those 3,000 tests there were nine that came back positive,” Parson said.
“You have to take all the numbers as a whole to see how it affects the entire state.”
The state’s health director also pointed out that the spike in positive cases could be a result of increased testing.
Missouri’s stay-at-home order was lifted Monday and some business reopened.
The state has reported 8,386 cases and 352 deaths statewide as of Sunday night.
