Rural Missouri pastor: Virus 'just started to sprout up'

O'FALLON, Mo. (AP) — Pastor Joshua Manning is waiting for test results, but he can tell by the persistent fever and body aches that he probably has the coronavirus. His wife and three kids have symptoms, too, and so many members of his Community Baptist Church in tiny Noel, Missouri, are infected that he’s closing the building until things improve.

“We did all the things we were supposed to do,” Manning, 41, said. “We shut down for two months. But the cases have just started to sprout up.”

Have they ever. At the start of June, McDonald County in the far southwestern corner of Missouri had fewer than two dozen confirmed cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. As of Tuesday, 498 cases have been confirmed, many of them tied to the Tyson Foods chicken processing plant in Noel. Meat processing plants across the U.S. have been stung by outbreaks, including plants in other parts of Missouri.

Few places, though, have been hit like McDonald County. Though it has just 23,000 residents, only six other Missouri counties and the cities of St. Louis and Kansas City have recorded more cases.

Last week, Missouri health officials began testing all 1,400 workers at the Tyson plant. Results are expected to be announced soon, along with the state’s plan to address the outbreak.

People from neighboring areas also work at the plant. Newton County, just to the north, has also seen a spike in cases, with 279, most of those announced this month.

McDonald County — flanked by Arkansas to the south and Oklahoma to the west — is known for soaring bluffs, waterfalls and breath-taking beauty along the Elk River, a popular spot for camping and float trips. Noel itself is named for a founding family, but the yuletide-sounding name prompts thousands of Christmas cards and letters each December to be sent to the...