Several hundred employees at Isle of Capri Casino and Hotel in Boonville will be furloughed starting Saturday.

The announcement was posted this week to the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce development and follows a trend of furloughs and mass layoffs throughout the state and the country due to the novel coronavirus.

The action affects 350 employees in Boonville. The Kansas City, Kansas, Isle of Capri also is implementing a staff reduction of 209 through a furlough.

“This emergency and these sudden and unexpected circumstances caused the temporary facility closure and adversely affected our business operations,” the casino’s Workforce Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act letter stated.

As of March 28, the Missouri Department of Labor had received 104,230 claims. Cooper County’s unemployment rate as of February was at 4%.

Eldorado Resorts, the owner of Isle of Capri, had received regulatory approval from the Missouri Gaming Commission to merge with Caesars Entertainment Corp. If the merger still is finalized this year it will operate two Eldorado-owned casinos in Missouri — the Isle of Capri-Boonville and Lumiere Place in St. Louis — and take over operation of the Caesars-owned Harrah’s North Kansas City Hotel and Casino.

The commission April 3 extended the closure of casinos in the state through April 24. The casino hopes to reopen for business April 25.

Missouri has lost more than 2,000 gaming-related jobs due to the shrinking economy from the COVID-19 pandemic.