3 Kansas City metro counties end curfew for restaurants and bars as COVID rates drop
As the number of new COVID-19 cases continues to drop, Johnson, Wyandotte and Jackson counties will join the rest of the Kansas City metro and lift their curfews on bars and restaurants.
In a joint announcement on Thursday, health officials said the three counties will allow bars and restaurants to resume normal hours. But other restrictions remain in place.
At the same time, Jackson County Executive Frank White warned people to remain vigilant as a new, more easily transmissible strain of the coronavirus has been detected in wastewater systems in eastern Jackson County, Kansas City and in wastewater originating in Johnson County.
“Studies show this variant spreads more easily and quickly than others, which could lead to a surge in coronavirus cases,” White said in a statement. “Moving forward, it is imperative that mask wearing, social distancing and frequent hand washing are practiced vigorously until we can all get vaccinated.”
The Johnson County Board of Commissioners on Thursday voted unanimously to remove a midnight curfew on businesses that serve alcohol, effective immediately. The rest of the county’s health order, including a mass gathering limit for some venues, stays in place until the end of March.
Wyandotte and Jackson counties also are lifting their curfews, effective Friday. Both counties had required bars and restaurants to stop serving alcohol at midnight and to close at 12:30 a.m. Those businesses are still restricted to 50% capacity in both counties, unlike in Johnson County.
Both Johnson and Wyandotte counties require the businesses to separate tables by six feet, plus limit parties to no more than eight people. Jackson County limits parties to no more than 10 at a table.
The changes come after first Kansas City, then Clay and Platte counties eased their curfews and gathering restrictions in the past week. Those jurisdictions ended their 50% capacity limit on bars and restaurants, but still require social distancing.
The metro has been reporting its lowest number of daily COVID-19 cases in months, and new hospitalizations and deaths also have been dropping since January.
“In the last two months we have not seen any outbreaks in any of our bars in Wyandotte County. We keep very tight track of that,” said Juliann Van Liew, director of the public health department for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas. “And if we were seeing any of those, we would not be making this change. And in fact, we felt like we really can’t trace any clusters back to them within the last many weeks.”
Sanmi Areola, Johnson County health director, said he would prefer to keep COVID-19 restrictions in place despite the number of new cases dropping. “It doesn’t take much to change the trajectory,” he said.
“I think the public health order has been very, very impactful. It was what we had in place before we had the vaccine, and our preference is that it continues,” Areola said. “However, the reality of that is others across the region are eliminating the midnight limit. … If that’s the compromise that needs to be made, we might be OK with that as long as we are able to maintain physical distancing (and) masking.”
Johnson County is reporting its lowest rate of new COVID-19 cases since last summer. On Thursday, the county’s incidence rate — or the number of new cases per 100,000 people — was 156, down from more than 800 last fall.
Commissioner Janeé Hanzlick said she supported ending the midnight curfew because the reduced hours have put additional financial strain on business owners and their employees.
Other jurisdictions outside Johnson County enacted 10 p.m. curfews last fall, and later eased those to midnight. Health officials advocated for the early closing time, arguing that the later it gets and as people continue to consume alcohol, their inhibitions decrease and they become less mindful about following rules and restrictions.
Van Liew said that in Wyandotte County, the police department has visited bars and that owners have been keen on complying with rules such as social distancing and wearing masks.
“And so we just feel really good about the general compliance and buy-in we have from these bar owners, and especially when we move from 10 to midnight,” Van Liew said. “They wanted that so badly that they have really said you know we’ll step up to the table, we’ll do everything else so that we can, we can expand the hours.”
She added that a community survey showed 90% of Wyandotte County residents said COVID-19 is moderately or extremely serious and 98% said they wear masks when they are around others who aren’t part of their household.
Johnson County officials also have said that businesses have overwhelmingly complied with the rules, and that no fines have been issued to businesses violating protocols.
The county will continue to have a mass gathering limit of 50 people, or 50% capacity of a venue, whichever is fewer. The gathering limit includes broad exemptions for bars, restaurants, shops, gyms and other businesses.
Wyandotte County restricts gatherings to under 10 people. Jackson County’s limit is no more than 50 people.
The recent drop in cases is welcome news for health officials, who sounded the alarm last fall when new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations reached record highs. In response, each municipality implemented limits on gatherings and businesses in November, although the rules varied throughout the region.
Officials hope the decline will continue as more residents are vaccinated. But they emphasize that residents must continue wearing masks, avoiding gatherings and following other protocols to help slow the spread of the virus — especially as more contagious variants of the virus cause concern.
Political and public health leaders in Wyandotte, Johnson and Jackson counties coordinated their decisions to ease restrictions on Thursday, a week after Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas made his announcement. In the days following Lucas’ announcement, both Clay and Platte counties announced they were easing restrictions as well.
But there continues to be a patchwork of COVID-19 restrictions throughout the metro.
The discussions among leaders in those three counties represented a continued absence of Kansas City from the group that was once called the Core 4.
“Successful partnerships require humility, respect for one another and sacrificing one’s individual interests for the whole,” White said in a statement. “Not all leaders, especially elected ones, are able to do that. However, I am grateful that from the very early days of this pandemic, we have stood united in our commitment to science and united in our belief that we can be most effective in protecting our communities when we work together.”
Initially, Kansas City joined those three counties in coordinating responses and planning to the coronavirus pandemic.
But soon after those initial pledges of cooperation, Kansas City forged its own path.
“Now we would prefer that these things were coordinated regionally, which is why we worked with Jackson County and are trying to work with Johnson County on this,” said Unified Government Mayor David Alvey before the Johnson County Commission voted to end the midnight curfew.
Van Liew said Kansas City Health Department Director Rex Archer is still on weekly calls with regional public health officials.
“So he knows what we’re thinking and doing and he generally gives us an idea of what he’d like to see in coming weeks. Whether or not that manifests with what he particularly is hoping to see is another question,” Van Liew said. “But I think in terms of keeping one another in the loop on our intent, that that certainly is happening. It just depends how politics interfere.”
This story was originally published February 25, 2021 at 2:41 PM.
