Kansas City mayor makes it official: Coronavirus stay-at-home order extended
Kansas City residents will remain under a stay-at-home order until May 15 to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus, Mayor Quinton Lucas announced Thursday.
Lucas extended his previous COVID-19 order that was set to expire April 24, but didn’t change its instructions: Residents are to stay home unless they are participating in essential activities, including seeking medical care or supplies, obtaining food or going to work at an essential business.
The announcement came after Missouri on Wednesday reached 4,895 cases and 147 deaths. In Kansas, 1,494 people have been infected, and 76 have died. Kansas City alone has seen 371 cases and 11 deaths.
In an interview, Lucas said he had “full faith” that the stay-at-home order had saved lives.
“Had we not done this or if we just pulled back today, particularly because we still have a fairly, I think, high infection rate … we would actually see a lot of the hard work we’ve done over recent weeks evaporate fairly quickly.”
Unlike the initial stay-at-home order, Lucas issued the extension independently. But he expected other cities and counties in the area to follow suit. Earlier this week, he said elected officials from across the metro were discussing extending orders by one to three weeks, and he would likely favor the longer option. The extension he announced Thursday is exactly three weeks.
Caleb Clifford, chief of staff to Jackson County Executive Frank White, said Thursday morning that White planned to make an announcement “on an extension to his current stay-at-home order today.”
Clifford said White, Lucas and other leaders agreed Wednesday to “a common course of action,” based on the recommendations of regional public health officials.
Lucas’ order comes on the advice of Kansas City’s health director, Rex Archer, who, along with health directors from nine counties across the metro, issued a statement Wednesday night recommending cities and counties adopt the May 15 extension.
Across the country, elected officials are feeling pressure to reopen businesses, but Lucas said he was prioritizing public health advice. He noted Kansas City will provide relief for businesses financially harmed by the shutdown.
“We’re also going to make sure that people are alive to shop, work, that sort of thing, and we’re going to try to save as many lives as we possibly can.”
Just as the social-distancing and stay-at-home orders came gradually, Lucas said Kansas City’s emergence from isolation will be a multi-step process.
“I think what we’ve all known throughout this crisis is it wasn’t going to be that the order ends on April 24 and on April 25, we all go to a Kansas City Royals baseball game with 40,000 of our friends.”
The extension gives Kansas City the longest stay-at-home order in the area — at least for now. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly announced Wednesday that her state’s order, set to expire April 19, would be extended until May 3.
Missouri’s statewide order, which has been criticized as porous and defers to local governments to decide what businesses are essential, expires April 24.
On Wednesday, Gov. Mike Parson implied his order might last another couple weeks, a period when models show COVID-19 could peak across Missouri. He said he would have more information at his Thursday briefing.
“The next two weeks will decide what decisions we make for the future of this state,” he said, later adding: “It’s critically important that we abide by this order for the next couple weeks. I can’t stress that enough.
Lucas said his order takes Kansas City a couple weeks beyond what is currently its expected peak in infections. That way, Kansas City can hopefully see a decline in transmissions of the disease and protect itself from a second spike in infections.
“The reason that this virus is so scary is that we don’t know that it just comes from a partner, that it comes from one thing because so many are asymptomatic,” Lucas said. “So our ability to, in essence, isolate it, to be able to treat it, but also to note that there are fewer clusters in which it’s spreading will be incredibly helpful for us so we’re not all walking around if things were to open up tomorrow just concerned we’re getting it from almost any surface around.”
Lucas said whether and how Kansas City’s stay-at-home order ends on May 15 depends on several factors: the rate of new infections and the health care system’s capacity to test, trace and treat.
The City Council was expected to get a report Thursday afternoon about the city’s response to COVID-19.
In Kansas, Kelly said officials want to see case numbers fall for two weeks before they roll back restrictions. And then, that rollback needs to be slow and cautious. She said some steps to limit the spread of the virus may be necessary until a vaccine is developed.
“If we do rush it, we will end up doing more harm,” Kelly said.
The Star’s Jason Hancock, Jonathan Shorman, Robert. A Cronkleton and Mike Hendricks contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 16, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
