The end of an era of the Coronavirus pandemic in southwest Missouri took place in Joplin on Friday morning. KRPS’s Fred Fletcher-Fierro has more.

For the final time, Freeman Health System Head of Infection Prevention Jessica Liberty held a press conference at the drive-thru site of Freeman’s COVID testing, vaccine, and call center.

Freeman established the facility as a COVID-19 hub in April of 2020 when testing was minimal and months before any vaccine was available. Jessica Liberty reflects on when she first heard of the coronavirus.

“I started in this role in December of 2019. My very first day of origination at Freeman, my husband, we were watching Good Morning America, and my husband said, they there’s a new coronavirus, it’s in Wuhan City, China. And now that your infection prevention, you may have to think about that. And I said, nah, it will never make it to US soils.”

Liberty says that Freeman’s COVID-19 hub provided 20,000 tests, 30,000 vaccines, and staff answered 70,000 phone calls, with the average call length between 4 and 7 minutes. For 89 9 KRPS, I’m Fred Fletcher-Fierro