COVID-19 news: Kansas City extends stay-at-home order; Kansas reports 4 more deaths
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas on Thursday announced he was extending the city’s stay-at-home order until May 15 to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
His previous order was set to expire April 24. Residents who are not participating in essential activities are to stay home. Essential activities include seeking medical car or supplies, obtaining food or going to work at an essential business.
Lucas said in an interview that’s 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.”
Other cities and counties in the are expected to extend their orders too.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson implied his order, which is set to expire April 24. 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. Missouri is expected to release updated coronavirus statistics in the afternoon.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly announced Wednesday that her state’s order, set to expire April 19, would be extended until May 3.
The number of people testing positive for the coronavirus in Kansas has surpassed 1,500, according to statistics released Thursday afternoon by state health officials.
In the past 24 hours, the number of confirm COVID-19 cases in Kansas grew to a total of 1,588, an increase of 94 cases from 1,494 reported Wednesday.
The number of people who have died from complications related to COVID-19 also increased by four. As of Thursday, 80 people have died from the disease in Kansas, up from 76 reported the day before.
So far, a total of 359 people have been hospitalized with the disease. Kansas has tested more than 16,100 people, with 14,534 of the test returning negative.
Two-thirds of people dying of COVID-19 in Wyandotte County are black
More than two-thirds of the people dying from COVID-19 in Wyandotte county are black, according to newly released date by county health officials.
Although black residents make up about 23% of the county’s population, they also account for more than half of the people testing positive for the coronavirus.
The data mirrors what is being seen across the Kansas City metro and the United States: the coronavirus pandemic has caused disproportionate damage in black communities.
“Protecting and supporting underserved communities that already suffer from inequitable health outcomes and higher than average levels of chronic disease is more important than ever in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Dr. Allen Greiner, Chief Medical Officer with the Unified Government Public Health Department, said in a news release.
The data also shows that Hispanic residents in Wyandotte County, while making up 28% of the county’s population, account for 15% of the people testing positive for the virus.
County health officials cautioned that this doesn’t mean there’s a lower proportion of COVID-19 illnesses in that community. Rather, they suspect that’s due to a lower proportion of Hispanic residents being tested.
Unemployment systems confound jobless in Kansas and Missouri
Unemployment systems in Kansas and Missouri, like those across the nation, are showing cracks under the pressure of the coronavirus pandemic and the historic volume of unemployment claims they were not designed or equipped to handle.
The numbers of new claims continued to surge in Missouri last week. State data released Thursday showed 101,722 people filed new jobless claims for the week ending April 11, up from the 91,049 who filed the previous week.
In Kansas, 30,786 people filed new claims last week, down from 50,345 the week before.
Kansas’ Department of Labor website for filing claims has been buggy or offline for extended periods and getting someone on the phone is rare. The department’s outdated computer system runs on a mainframe that dates back to the 1970s.
The state has added 150 employees to the department to decrease wait times throughout March and April, Gov. Laura Kelly said during a daily briefing Wednesday. Originally, only 20 employees were answering phones.
Delores Rose, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Labor, said that 90% of claims are processed through its online portal without assistance.
But some have reported running into similar technological bugs on Missouri’s system faced by others in other states.
Kansas, Missouri governors talking about reopen strategies with local leaders
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has spoken with Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s office and leaders in the Kansas City metro area about strategies to relax stay-at-home restrictions and reopen the economy.
Kelly is collaborating with Parson and mayors to “reduce confusion and help keep our community safe on both sides of the state line,” she said during her daily briefing Wednesday afternoon.
Kelly is looking to approach lifting the restrictions slowly and cautiously.
“If we do rush it, we will end up doing more harm,” Kelly said.
