Kansas City’s new COVID order: Curfew on restaurants and bars, gatherings capped at 10
Kansas City will cut restaurant capacity by half and ban indoor gatherings of more than 10 people in a return to some of its strictest COVID-19 guidance since this spring.
Mayor Quinton Lucas announced the move on Monday in a news conference in front of City Hall. The restrictions will take effect Friday.
Jackson County in Missouri and Wyandotte County in Kansas announced similar restrictions in a joint release Monday. But Johnson County adopted far looser restrictions last week — a move Lucas said “disheartened” him — and Clay and Platte counties had not issued new limits as of Monday.
Monday’s announcements come as cases surge across the metro, threatening to overwhelm hospitals.
Lucas said Kansas City had reached “our greatest crisis moment” since the pandemic began, noting public health officials’ warnings that the number of available hospital beds was dwindling.
“It’s very simple,” he said. “Every wedding, every Thanksgiving, every large event is a potential for large community spread. We have seen it time and again.”
Here are the restrictions announced Monday:
▪ Indoor gatherings are limited to 10 people unless allowed through an application process with the Kansas City Health Department.
▪ Restaurants and bars must limit capacity to 50%, space out parties and close by 10 p.m. Patrons must wear masks at all times unless they are actively eating or drinking. Parties — both indoor and outdoors — are limited to 10 people.
▪ Restaurants and bars must immediately notify the Health Department of any known COVID-19 cases.
▪ Masks must be worn in all indoor spaces with more than one person per room.
▪ Gyms and fitness centers are limited to 50% capacity, and patrons are required to wear masks.
If the new restrictions don’t sufficiently limit the spread of the coronavirus, Lucas said, the city will have to look at even stricter limits.
Lucas said he would not be seeing his family in person for Thanksgiving and recommended others heed warnings and cancel gatherings.
“There are more family events where we have seen the tragic spread of COVID-19 than folks want to let on,” Lucas said. “No one wants to be the Grinch … but we are asking folks to take these important steps so that we can get to a more positive situation later on.”
Health Department director Rex Archer noted that the city has seen increased cases after every holiday since the start of the pandemic.
The new order replaces Kansas City’s most recent guidance, which required restaurants to space tables at least six feet apart. They have not faced capacity limits for months.
Lucas said some Kansas City businesses have not been forthcoming about COVID-19 outbreaks at their establishments, which he called “unconscionable.” That’s why they will be required to report them under the new order.
Though the city will still allow indoor dining at restaurants, Archer said he wouldn’t recommend it for many people.
The White House earlier this fall suggested restrictions on indoor dining, but Lucas did not include them, noting that Kansas City was surrounded by other jurisdictions that might not adopt the same limits.
But he went ahead Monday with stricter rules than the list Johnson County officials narrowly approved on Friday despite the urging of that county’s health director.
“The reason that we’re taking this action now is because at a certain point you have to lead,” Lucas said.
Jackson and Wyandotte counties
Orders in Jackson County outside of Kansas City city limits and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas, also go into effect on Friday, mirroring much of Kansas City’s list of restrictions.
UG Mayor David Alvey said in a statement that increasing COVID-19 rates as well as decreasing staffing and rooms at local hospitals prompted the new restrictions.
“As we enter the holiday season, let us commit to one another to neither get nor give the virus,” Alvey said.
Jackson County Executive Frank White Jr. said the metro was facing “uncontrolled spread” of COVID-19.
“Due to the dramatically increasing rate of the disease in our community, our hospitals have warned that they are facing a breaking point and the care their patients desperately rely upon may soon have to be rationed, if not worse,” White said in a statement.
Under the two counties’ orders, entertainment venues like banquet halls, stadiums and performance venues and recreation facilities like gyms, bowling alleys and casinos are restricted to 50% of their capacity.
So are bars and restaurants, which, as in Kansas City, also have to close by 10 p.m. Bars and restaurants are told to limit parties to eight or fewer people and keep parties separated by at least six feet.
Public gatherings in excess of 10 people that aren’t related to government, business or religious activities, or weddings and funerals, are prohibited.
Lucas’ order contains no exceptions for weddings or other large gatherings unless they receive approval from the Health Department. Regular church serves are exempted provided that congregations social distance and wear masks.
Skyrocketing COVID-19 cases
All the elected leaders who announced new guidance Monday noted the skyrocketing number of COVID-19 cases and shrinking capacity of the health care system.
Lucas said half of the recent coronavirus transmissions have come from people in their 20s and 30s, driven by spread in bars and night clubs, particularly late at night.
Nurses have come from out of state to help at Research Medical Center.
The metro area — Clay, Platte and Jackson counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas — added 896 cases and six deaths on Monday, bringing the seven-day average for new cases to 1,108 per day. That is nearly double the average 608 cases the metro was adding two weeks ago.
Since the start of the pandemic, 886 people have died of COVID-19 in the Kansas City area.
Hospitalizations grew over the weekend at the University of Kansas Health System, hospital leaders said Monday. About 130 people are currently admitted related to COVID-19.
Steve Stites, the system’s chief medical officer, expressed alarm over the upward trend in hospitalizations in the region, which could continue to increase for days even if restrictions are put into place because of the lag between infections and hospitalizations.
He noted the many exceptions in Johnson County’s new order. Stites, who spoke several hours before the announcements in Kansas City and Jackson and Wyandotte counties, appeared skeptical about the effectiveness of new restrictions announced in the region so far.
“I think we have to get real serious about this and I think some of the orders may not be — from just a pure public health standpoint — may not quite be enough,” Stites said.
Stites and other doctors during a media briefing Monday stressed the importance of avoiding even small private gatherings.
“The next step will be a shutdown,” Stites said. “If this doesn’t work and the health care resources are overwhelmed as we’re fearful they’re going to, we will not have a lot of choices, I’m afraid.”
On Friday, the Johnson County Board of Commissioners voted 4-3 to issue a midnight curfew on restaurants and bars and to limit gatherings to 50 people, or 50% capacity of a venue, whichever is fewer.
But there are many exemptions: shops, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, fitness centers, health care facilities, churches, schools and funeral homes do not have to abide by the capacity limit. The order also reaffirms the county’s mask mandate and requires social distancing in public.
Joseph LeMaster, the county’s public health officer, said that the health order was “developed not only considering the current status of COVID-19 in Johnson County, but also in our region and state.”
But he also acknowledged that the order was less restrictive than those coming to nearby counties.
“Other metro municipalities are contemplating orders with smaller gathering limits. It is our hope in Johnson County that we will follow this order to avoid an overwhelming situation with our hospitals and schools,” LeMaster said.
The Star’s Mike Hendricks, Steve Vockrodt, Jonathan Shorman and Sarah Ritter contributed to this report.
This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 12:19 PM.
