TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A local public health official plans to close bars and restrict restaurant hours in the state’s largest city and the surrounding area until after Labor Day because of a surge in reported coronavirus cases over the past six weeks that’s been far worse than the state’s spike.
Dr. Garold Minns, Sedgwick County’s health officer, told county commissioners Tuesday that he will issue an order to close bars and nightclubs until Sept. 9 and direct restaurants to close at 10 p.m. He said he also plans to drop the limit on public gatherings from 45 to 15 and prohibit fairs, parades and festivals.
Minns announced his plans the day before the Republican-controlled State Board of Education planned to vote on Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s plan to delay the reopening of the state’s public and private K-12 schools for three weeks, from mid-August to Sept. 9. Kelly issued an order Monday requiring mask use and daily temperature checks for staff and students statewide, but Kansas law requires her to get the state board’s approval to delay the start of fall classes.
“We need to do what we can to get this thing back under control,” Minns told Sedgwick County commissioners during a live-streamed meeting. “If we want schools to go back in session, whether it’s August or September, we need to get the cases down.”
Kansas has seen its number of reported coronavirus cases exceed 23,000 for the pandemic, and its reported COVID-19-related deaths top 300. Kelly has used the state’s spike in cases to justify her plans for schools.
But Republican legislators and conservatives outside of state government are urging the 10-member elected State Board of Education to allow schools to reopen on their normal schedule. The argue that children will be harmed by isolation at home and have noted that only 1.4% of the reported coronavirus hospitalizations and none of the COVID-19-related deaths reported as of Monday were in children under 18.
Kelly lifted statewide restrictions on businesses and public gatherings on May 26, after weeks of pressure from critical GOP legislators. Her action left those rules to the state’s 105 counties, and Kansas law allowed them to opt out of a mask-wearing mandate that Kelly issued July 2.
Douglas County in northeast Kansas, home to the main University of Kansas campus, closed its bars July 3, except for carryout or curbside service. In neighboring Shawnee County, which includes the state capital of Topeka, the health officer issued an order July 7 restricting the hours of bars and restaurants, requiring them to close from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. for cleaning.
In Sedgwick County, Walt’s East Wichita sports bar co-owner Heather Westfall said “the playing field needs to be even for everyone,” questioning what will accomplish if “churches can have as many people as they need to and bars can’t.”
Westfall said an order closing bars would “absolutely devastate” her business. “
“We can’t do that to our staff,” she said. “They’re making a quarter of the money they were making before but because they’re working. They can’t qualify for unemployment either. So they’re just stuck in a really bad spot.”
Minns issued an order two weeks ago requiring people to wear masks in public places after the county commission initially resisted a mandate. The commission can change or overrule Minns’ order on bars, restaurants and public gatherings at a meeting Wednesday.
“What we have learned is that this virus loves warm weather,” Minns said. “Unlike influenza, it is transmitted very effectively in hot weather. It does not take a pause in the summertime.”
The state health department said Sedgwick County had 3,162 reported novel coronavirus cases as of Monday, a 362% increase from the 684 cases it had on June 10, when the state saw the growth in new cases bottom out after a spike in early May.
During the same period, the state saw its reported number of cases rise 115%, up 12,522 cases to 23,334.
