As some areas shorten coronavirus orders, Kansas City beefs up testing and tracing
Kansas City will add $800,000 to its effort to test and trace coronavirus cases, especially in ZIP codes hit hard by the pandemic, the City Council decided Thursday.
Members voted unanimously in favor of an ordinance offered by Councilwoman Melissa Robinson that will add the money, primarily to expand testing in the city. It will also add to the city’s effort to enforce social distancing requirements, trace the spread of COVID-19 cases and provide personal protective equipment for the city’s Health Department and safety-net providers.
The funds will be targeted toward vulnerable populations in 15 ZIP codes hit hard by the virus or with high levels of poverty.
Robinson said the legislation allows for a “semi-equitable approach” to combating the virus.
“This is just an opportunity for us to target those areas,” she said. “That does not mean that individuals that live outside of these ZIP codes would not be able to benefit from these services or access these services.”
The vote came after some jurisdictions rolled back stay-at-home orders issued to slow the spread of the virus. Clay County announced Wednesday that it would end its order at 11:59 p.m. May 3 instead of May 15, which is when Kansas City’s order is scheduled to expire. On Thursday, North Kansas City, which is in Clay County, announced the same.
In its announcement, Clay County said its rate of COVID-19 infection was staying low because it had successfully flattened the curve. Its decision to “reopen,” it said, was partially based on improvements to its testing capacity, a metric Mayor Quinton Lucas — who criticized the county’s decision Wednesday evening — mentioned during the City Council’s discussion Thursday.
“All of the counties, all of the jurisdictions that are saying we’re reopening and we’re kind of just satisfied by testing have done nothing even remotely similar to what you’re doing with this ordinance,” Lucas told Robinson.
Lucas added that the efforts were “vital” for public health and commended her.
Clay County officials said Thursday they had stepped up testing, adding new testing sites in Gladstone and Liberty.
The Kansas City City Council also adopted a resolution at the request of the Health Forward Foundation urging the states of Missouri and Kansas to collect more data on COVID-19 patients, including their race, ethnicity and ZIP code.
“We are seeing that mortality rates are maybe disproportionately higher among people of color,” Robinson said, adding that the data “helps us to understand the disease better and helps us to understand how we can address vulnerable populations who are disproportionately impacted.”
According to data the Kansas City Health Department released earlier this month, black people account for about half of the city’s COVID-19 cases, though they make up just 30% of the population.
Includes reporting by The Star’s Katie Moore.
