COVID-19 news: Northland parents sue schools, Jackson County extends mask order
Here’s the latest on COVID-19 in the Kansas City area:
Northland parents sue schools
A new nonprofit group, representing parents in the Northland, is suing seven school districts, along with elected officials in Kansas City and North Kansas City, over their mask mandates and quarantine policies.
The Northland Parent Association — which claims to be made up of hundreds of families and other taxpayers in Clay and Platte counties — filed the federal lawsuit on Sunday, requesting that the mandates, as applied to children, be struck down. The group also seeks an injunction preventing the municipalities and districts from enforcing their mask mandates and quarantine rules on schoolchildren.
The lawsuit comes as Attorney General Eric Schmitt seeks to block Missouri school districts from mandating masks. Schmitt filed a lawsuit last week against Columbia Public Schools. But the class action suit, in Boone County Circuit Court, goes beyond the local district, and asks the court to strike down district mask directives statewide.
Vaccinations mandated for KC health system employees
Saint Luke’s Health System will require employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 30, hospital officials announced Monday.
The move will affect about 35% of the system’s 12,000 employees who are not vaccinated yet, they said. Employees can request a medical or religious exemption, which will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by either Saint Luke’s clinicians or Saint Luke’s Spiritual Wellness chaplains.
Saint Luke’s joins Truman Medical Centers/University Health in mandating employee vaccinations.
Jackson County extends mask order
Jackson County legislators voted 6-3 Monday to extend the county’s mask order until Oct. 7.
The public health order issued by County Executive Frank White requires everyone age 5 or older to wear masks inside public places, whether or not they have been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.
The one-month extension came after a sometimes raucous 45-minute public hearing in which only one of the 18 people who asked to speak voiced support for the one-month extension.
Positive COVID case traced to mask-focused public meeting
Two weeks after Independence leaders rejected a proposed mask mandate promoted by the city’s own health advisers, the city is encouraging anyone who attended that public meeting to get tested for COVID-19.
At least one person may have exposed other attendees to the virus during the Aug. 16 meeting, the city said on social media. The city learned of the positive case on Monday.
The meeting was well-attended, mostly by area residents unhappy with the idea of wearing masks again. Many did not wear masks in the crowded space; the city had no requirement for anyone to do so.’
Despite milestone, less than 50% of KC area’s population fully vaccinated
Despite reaching a milestone over the weekend in the battle against the coronavirus, less than 50% of the population in the Kansas City metro area has been fully vaccinated, according to data by the Mid-America Regional Council.
The Kansas City region over the weekend hit more than 1 million people who are now fully vaccinated, according to MARC.
That number represents 48.5% of the area’s total population of more than 2 million, including kids under the age of 12, for whom the vaccine has yet to be approved.
The region is comprised of Johnson, Leavenworth, Miami and Wyandotte counties in Kansas and Cass, Clay, Jackson, Platte and Ray counties in Missouri.
The Star’s Lisa Gutierrez, Bill Lukitsch, Sarah Ritter, Mike Hendricks and Robert A. Cronkleton contributed to this report.
