COVID-19 update: Three more dead in JoCo, Missouri remains without stay at home order
One person in Kansas City and three more people in Johnson County have died from the new coronavirus, health officials announced.
At least 19 people have died from COVID-19 in Missouri. Sixteen people have died in Kansas, according to the latest figures.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson remains one of the few U.S. governors who has not issued a statewide stay-at-home order.
Local governments have taken matters into their own hands and issued stay at home orders for their own cities and counties. Kansas City and St. Louis both have stay at home directives in place.
A statewide order in Kansas went into effect Monday.
As state and local leaders grapple with how to deal with the spread of COVID-19, the virus continues to take a toll on area hospitals, industries and students.
Hotel business
Visit KC said the cancellation of 45 conventions and nearly 109,000 hotel room reservations has resulted in an estimated economic impact of $90.3 million.
A silver lining for the local convention business: 30 groups have or are trying to reschedule their events in Kansas City. That includes Planet Comicon, which rescheduled its event originally planned for March to August.
In Kansas City, occupancy rates for hotels have continued to plummet.
Last week, occupancy rates for metro-wide hotels was 19.1%, according to Smith Travel Research. That compares to 68.5% for the same period a year ago.
Some hotels have laid off workers, closed temporarily or shuttered indefinitely.
“One small glimmer of hope is that public health agencies are considering turning to hotels to serve as ‘hospital support centers’ that would provide additional beds for COVID patients,” securities analytics firm Trepp said in a research note.
The Surge
The president of Truman Medical Centers said they are preparing for “The Surge,” a wave of breath-stealing COVID-19 cases that predictions say will hit the Kansas City area in late April to early May.
Charlie Shields said he is convinced that if people in the Kansas City area would just do what they’re supposed to do — stay home, socially distance, stop crowding the roads, parks and grocery stores — that the Kansas City area could be spared the worst of what’s stricken cities like New York.
“If we continue to do that,” he said with urgency, “and people stay vigilant, and they stay true to that, I think we’ll make it through this. I think it will be fine. I don’t think we’ll experience what we’ve seen in other communities.”
In response to the outbreak, the hospital has established an incident command center and staff have been conscripted to COVID-19 related jobs.
At the start of March, two people were assigned to take COVID-19 calls in the hospital’s 404-CARE center. Now 11 nurses handle an average of 150 calls each day.
Shields also said more tests are coming in and results are available faster.
College graduation
The University of Kansas and the University of Missouri System announced they won’t hold in-person graduation ceremonies in May because of national social distancing guidelines that prevent gatherings of more than 10 people during the coronavirus pandemic.
UM System officials said this is the first time, as far as they know, that the university has postponed commencement since 1862, when the campus was closed due to the Civil War.
The schools join Kansas State University, which announced last month it was canceling its May ceremony. The universities last month went to hosting all classes online to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
In May, MU will host a virtual graduation, inviting alums from around the world to join remotely. And at a later date, graduates will be invited back to campus to participate in an in-person ceremony.
KU, which had scheduled spring graduation for May 17, is postponing the ceremony but said it has not yet developed a plan to reschedule.
More than 1,800 people in Missouri have contracted the coronavirus and there are more than 550 cases in Kansas.
Across the U.S., the disease has spread to more than a quarter of a million people, according to Johns Hopkins University.
