COVID-19 update: First case in Jackson County, and Kansas shuts schools amid outbreak
As the new coronavirus COVID-19 spread across the country, new cases were confirmed Tuesday in the Kansas City region, including the first positive tests in Jackson County, Missouri, and Douglas County, Kansas.
In Kansas City, far fewer people could be seen downtown than usual as museums, community centers and movie theaters closed. Restaurants were barred from serving dine-in patrons. Religious gatherings were canceled.
The Kansas City Zoo announced it would close its doors until April. State-owned casinos in Missouri and Kansas were directed to shut down. The University of Kansas asked thousands of students living on campus to move out.
In Topeka, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly ordered the state’s K-12 schools to close for the rest of the school year. She also said she would send most state employees home for two weeks beginning Monday.
“This situation has evolved rapidly and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future,” Kelly said, calling the COVID-19 outbreak an “unprecedented emergency.”
New cases
By Tuesday afternoon, 18 cases of the disease had been identified in Kansas and nine in Missouri, including one confirmed Monday: a Drexel man in self-isolation in Cass County.
Among the new patients Tuesday included a woman in her 80s from eastern Jackson County. She had not recently traveled and tested positive through a private lab, the county health department said.
“This is another call to action that we must take this seriously and follow the guidance of public health experts,” Jackson County Executive Frank White Jr. said. “If not, we risk seeing a wave of infections that could overwhelm our community’s healthcare system.”
Cerner, the global health care IT firm, told workers Tuesday workers at the Realizations campus in south Kansas City that one of their peers had tested positive for COVID-19. As of late Tuesday, the Kansas City Health Department had not received word that any Kansas City resident had tested positive for the disease. It was not clear if the Cerner patient represented a new case of the virus.
Seven new cases were announced Tuesday in Kansas, including one in Douglas County. That patient, a man in his 20s who recently returned from Florida, was tested in Topeka. Citing privacy concerns, officials would not say if he is a KU student.
Hours before the case was announced, KU asked students on campus to move out by 2 p.m. Friday. Those who are away from campus will not be allowed to return to retrieve their belongings. About 5,000 of KU’s 28,000 students live on campus in student housing.
“Let us be clear,” Chancellor Doug Girod and Provost Barbara Bichelmeyer said in a statement. “KU is not ‘closing.’ We instead are redefining how we deliver our services and maintain quality and integrity with a provisional, limited on-campus presence.”
Two of the newly confirmed Kansas cases were reported in Johnson County, bringing the number of cases identified there to 10. No details were immediately available about the recent patients.
Two more cases were reported early Tuesday in Wyandotte County, where a man in his 70s died from the disease last week. Officials said the patients, women in their 40s and 50s, were self-isolating at home.
“We are relieved that both patients are well enough to have been released from the hospital,” Kansas City, Kansas Mayor David Alvey said in a statement, “and wish them each a speedy recovery.”
Wyandotte County officials announced a fourth case later Tuesday. A male student at a private high school in Wyandotte County tested positive and was under home quarantine.
In Ford County, a woman in her 60s who recently traveled to the county also tested positive. The woman’s family is under quarantine.
Closing down
Also Tuesday, the city’s Parks and Recreation Department closed more museums and community centers, but parks will remain open. Spring break camp services for children will continue through this week, Parks Director Terry Rynard said.
The City Clerk’s Office asked residents to observe City Council committee and legislative meetings through a live-stream and submit testimony by email instead of attending in person.
The new policies came a day after Mayor Quinton Lucas updated an emergency declaration to bar gatherings of more than 10 people and suspend restaurant dine-in service to help prevent transmission of the disease.
Test results for dozens of residents and staff members at the Wyandotte County nursing facility linked to the state’s first COVID-19 death came back negative, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said Tuesday.
Also Tuesday, the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, which represents 118 churches in northeast Kansas, said all Catholic Masses, other than for funerals, would be canceled “for the time being.” The cancellation could possibly include Easter Sunday Mass on April 12.
“I encourage all of the faithful to continue to join together in prayer for the health and protection of our entire community and nation,” Archbishop Joseph Naumann said, “and for an end to this crisis.”
Nationwide, more than 5,800 cases were confirmed and 97 deaths had been reported by Tuesday afternoon, according to a database maintained by Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, there were more than 196,000 cases and 7,893 deaths.
Star reporters Judy L. Thomas and Jonathan Shorman contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 17, 2020 at 5:25 PM.
