Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas plans to extend mandate requiring mask use in public
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas will extend his order requiring masks or face coverings in public settings, his office announced in a news release Thursday.
The release did not provide details on the length of the extension but said it would be announced in a press conference at City Hall on Friday morning.
Lucas will also announce the city’s “next steps in COVID-19 response efforts,” the release said.
The planned extension comes as the Kansas City metro area continues to report higher daily increases of COVID-19 cases. 370 new cases were reported Thursday, and the area’s seven-day rolling average for new cases is 290.
The order, which went into effect on June 29, was set to expire on Sunday after two weeks.
Under the order, all employees or visitors to indoor public spaces in Kansas City must wear masks when they are “in an area or while performing an activity which will necessarily involve close contact or proximity to co-workers or the public where six feet of separation is not feasible.”
Businesses are asked to deny entry to people who do not wear masks, and the city health department enforced the order through complaints.
Some are exempt from the order, including:
- Minors, with strong guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Kansas City Health Department that children over age 2 wear face coverings.
- People with disabilities that prevent them from comfortably wearing or taking off face coverings or communicating while wearing face coverings.
- People with respiratory conditions or breathing trouble.
- People who have been told by a medical, legal, or behavioral health professional not to wear face coverings.
- People seated in a restaurant or tavern who are consuming food or drink while adequately distanced from other patrons.
Wyandotte County, Jackson County and the state of Kansas have issued their own mask orders in the last two weeks. Although Kansas’s order could be overturned by county governments, the Johnson County Commission voted to leave it in place.
Platte and Clay counties in Missouri did not issue mask mandates.
