LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Lawrence and Douglas County will require employees and visitors to wear masks inside their buildings, adding to the local mandates aimed at controlling the more contagious COVID-19 delta variant.
The city of Lawrence and Douglas County announced the mask requirements Friday. The rules take effect Monday and apply whether someone has been vaccinated against COVID-19 or not.
Their announcements came the same day the University of Kansas imposed an indoor mask mandate for students, staff and visitors at its main campus in Lawrence and a satellite campus in Johnson County in the Kansas City area.
Manhattan, the northeast Kansas city that is home to the main Kansas State University campus, also is requiring masks inside its buildings, as is Kansas State.
New COVID-19 cases have risen steadily in Kansas over the past six weeks because of the delta variant. Kansas averaged 942 new COVID-19 cases per day for the seven days that ended Friday, state health department data showed. The seven-day average for new cases had dropped below 100 per day in June.
Delta variant cases have been confirmed in 85 of the state’s 105 counties, including 14 this week. The total was approaching 2,000 as of Friday.
