KC health director says evidence is unquestionable that masks slow coronavirus spread
Public health officials in the Kansas City area are crediting a recent downturn in new COVID-19 cases to face mask requirements.
Though the orders in Kansas City and Johnson and Wyandotte counties went into place in late June and early July, their effect is now being seen. Efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19, including stay-at-home orders and masks, are not immediate because of the virus’s cycle of transmission and symptoms.
The rolling seven-day average of daily new coronavirus cases in the Kansas City metro area fell for the fifth straight day Friday, to 361. One week ago, it was 497. Two weeks ago, it was 438.
Though the spread is slowing, the fight isn’t over, officials said.
“There’s still too many places where people either aren’t wearing masks or aren’t required to wear masks,” said Rex Archer, the director of the Kansas City Health Department.
Archer said deaths are on the rise in Kansas City. He said 24 were reported from July 22 to Aug. 5 compared to 15 in the previous 14-day period, from July 8-22.
Though he said it is undeniable that mask orders have slowed the spread of the new coronavirus in the Kansas City area, Archer said places like restaurants and bars where masks are not required are risky. This is especially true, he said, for someone already at high risk of complication from the virus.
The Kansas City order was put in place on June 29. Since, Archer said, the spread of the virus has slowed “a little bit.”
Increased usage and acceptance of masks, Archer added, will take a cultural shift.
“Culture change takes some time,” he said. Back in February, he was telling people not to shake hands. “It took some time. But eventually, when was the last time you saw anybody shaking hands? So we can change culturally, it just takes some time.”
Wyandotte County’s masking requirement went into effect June 30. The seven-day rolling average of daily new COVID-19 cases was 46 and it continued increasing until July 22, when it hit 96. As of Thursday, it was 59.
In a statement Friday, Allen Greiner, the chief medical officer in the Wyandotte County health department, said the mask order came as a direct result of spikes in cases and hospitalizations.
“Ongoing efforts that we make as a community in mask-wearing, social distancing, and restricting our overall interactions with others now, especially when indoors, will slow the spread of COVID-19, protect our most vulnerable populations, and help us get back to some sense of normalcy more quickly,” Greiner said.
Mask order counties in Kansas see cases drop
Wyandotte is one of 15 counties in Kansas that chose to adopt Gov. Laura Kelly’s mask requirement last month. Johnson, Sedgwick and Shawnee counties were also on that list.
On Wednesday, Lee Norman, the secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said those counties with mask mandates reduced coronavirus case numbers, while case numbers remained steady in areas that don’t require face coverings.
Those counties, Norman said, represent about two-thirds of the state’s population and tend to have denser urban populations and a greater proportion of people from underrepresented backgrounds who are more likely to contract the virus and face complications.
Johnson County began mandating masks on July 3 when the seven-day rolling average of new COVID-19 cases sat at 72.
Two weeks later, Johnson County hit a high of 120 new cases per day, but since then, the number has been dropping.
“We do need to continue to work hard, have more people wear masks and avoid crowded events to drive this further down,” said Sanmi Areola, director of the Johnson County health department, in an email. “The trajectory of the positivity rate changed — leveled off during the same time period.
“This indicates that the spread of the virus is not getting worse and may in fact be improving.”
Even though Gov. Laura Kelly announced a mask mandate in public buildings as case numbers across the state soared in early July, about 80% of the state’s 105 counties refused to comply with the executive order, mainly opting for mask recommendations instead. In total, 90 counties did not institute a mask mandate, Norman said.
“Some counties have been the control group with no mask and some counties have been the experimental group where masks are worn,” Norman said, “and the experimental group is winning the battle. All of the improvement in the case development comes from those counties wearing masks.”
KC deaths increase, however
Two-week trends in Kansas City show COVID-19 deaths jumped by 60% starting in late July.
“Our deaths have been very significantly increasing,” Archer said Friday.
The number of new cases and hospitalizations also rose, according to data provided by Archer.
From July 8 to 22, there were 696 new cases and 36 hospitalizations. That rose to 897 new cases and 44 hospitalizations from July 22 to Aug. 5.
As of Friday, 4,042 coronavirus cases, including 74 deaths, had been confirmed by the KC health department.
A total of 22,071 cases have been reported in the Kansas City metropolitan area, which includes Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas. On Friday, 395 new cases were reported in the metro.
Four deaths were reported Friday in the metro, including three in Kansas City and one in Jackson County, raising the area’s total to 344.
This story was originally published August 7, 2020 at 4:00 PM.
