Businesses opening in Clay County will have occupancy limit, but number not specified
Businesses in Clay County reopening Monday in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic will operate with occupancy limits, a county response plan said.
The county’s stay-at-home order expires at 11:59 p.m. May 3. Last week, officials moved up the date of reopening from May 15 after Gov. announced the statewide order would be lifted May 3.
The county’s four-phase plan does not specify the occupancy limits that businesses will need to implement.
Initially, mass gatherings will continue to be prohibited.
Eventually, constraints on businesses will ease and limited mass gatherings will be permitted.
Then limitations on businesses will be removed and schools will reopen.
The last step in the recovery phase is expanding mass gatherings.
It isn’t clear what benchmarks will need to be met to move through those steps, but the county said each step could take weeks to months.
Once a vaccine or treatment is developed, widespread testing is available or there are minimal active cases, the county will lift all restrictions and introduce long-term solutions, the plan said.
Clay County reported 174 coronavirus cases on Wednesday. Of those, 100 people reside in Kansas City and 74 do not. Two people have died.
Residents of the county who live in Kansas City will remain under the city’s stay-at-home order which runs through May 15.
Elected leaders and public health officials have debated when and how to reopen. Jackson County will also reopen May 15, but earlier Wednesday, Platte County announced it would join Clay County and open May 4 instead of the 15th.
Later Wednesday, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas revealed strict parameters for the city’s reopening.
Businesses will be allowed to operate at 10% of their normal capacity or have 10 people in the establishment, whatever is greater. That includes the employees needed to run the business. And customers who are in a business for more than 10 minutes will have to register their name and contact information so that if a business is found to be at the center of an outbreak, health officials can trace those who may have been exposed.
More than 2,000 COVID-19 cases have been found in the Kansas City metropolitan area and 123 people have died.
