Michele Skalicky

The State of Missouri is issuing new guidance for schools related to COVID-19.  Governor Mike Parson announced Thursday that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education now advises that close contacts of a person with COVID-19 in a school setting don’t have to quarantine if all individuals were wearing masks.

The guidance applies in school districts and charter schools that have mask mandates in place and when all parties were wearing their masks correctly at the time of exposure.

U.S. Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri continues backing President Donald Trump as the president refuses to concede the election.  

President Trump took to Twitter Sunday saying, "since when does the lamestream media call who our next president will be?"

Blunt, speaking on ABC's This Week on Sunday said there’s a process that needs to be followed.  And he said both Joe Biden and Donald Trump will benefit from that.

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft is hopeful that every vote cast Tuesday, by mail or by in-person absentee in this presidential election will be counted before Election Day is over.  That’s despite Missouri voters casting a record number of mail-in and absentee ballots in this election.  

At last count, about 900,000 voters had cast a ballot before Election Day.  That’s approximately three times more than the state has had before. And those votes were not able to be tabulated by election workers until Tuesday.

Some people who haven’t been able to give blood in the past or those who have been deferred from giving blood will be impacted by new FDA rules.

The Community Blood Center of the Ozarks has adopted new federal guidelines that will allow for the re-entry of thousands of people to the donor pool who were previously deferred, according to a news release.

The updated FDA guidance changes the period of deferral from 12 months to three months in several donor categories. 

Those include:

The deadline to request a mail-in absentee ballot or a no-excuse mail-in ballot is 5 p.m. on Wednesday, October 21.  In-person absentee voting, for those who fall into one of seven categories, will continue through Monday, November 2.