Jackson joins Johnson and Wyandotte counties in setting May 11 as reopen date
Jackson County will join Johnson and Wyandotte counties in beginning a phased reopening of its economy on May 11, four days earlier than originally planned.
Friday’s announcement came a day after the public health officers in Johnson and Wyandotte counties signed orders extending their shutdowns by a week. They were set to begin reopening nonessential businesses and some public spaces on Monday, nearly six weeks after stay-at-home orders across metro Kansas City were put in place to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The three counties represent three-quarters of what’s typically referred to as the Core4 of the region; Kansas City, Missouri, is the other. The Core4 offered a unified approach to the stay-at-home orders last month, but Kansas City, Missouri, was absent from Friday’s announcement, having already embarked on its own “soft opening” scheduled to begin next week.
“When Kansas City announced their plan, that caught everyone a little off guard,” said Jackson County Executive Frank White at a Friday morning press conference in front of Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas, where he was joined by Johnson County Board of Commissioners Chairman Ed Eilert, Unified Government of Wyandotte County/KCK Mayor David Alvey and public health officials from each county.
The move to coordinate the dates among Johnson, Jackson and Wyandotte counties was aimed at removing some but not all of the confusion over when nonessential businesses in the area can begin to reopen.
“We’re trying to simplify this,” Caleb Clifford, the chief of staff to White, said ahead of the joint announcement.
Shutdown orders in Clay, Platte and Cass counties end Sunday, with some businesses and public spaces opening with certain social distancing restrictions on Monday. Statewide shutdown orders in Kansas and Missouri also end then, although local jurisdictions have permission to go longer to control the spread of the coronavirus in their communities.
The health directors in Jackson, Johnson and Wyandotte agreed that social distancing practices have largely been successful.
“We believe we’ve passed the peak of the cases of deaths and hospitalizations,” said Allen Greiner, chief medical officer for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas.
But he and his colleagues felt more time is needed to avoid having a resurgence of COVID-19 cases and have to order another shutdown.
Kansas City, Missouri, stands alone in setting next Wednesday as the start of what Mayor Quinton Lucas calls “a soft reopening” of nonessential businesses that don’t draw the general public, as long as they abide by social distancing rules. A law office, for example.
Some small retail shops can also open on May 6. But restaurants, libraries, community centers, gyms and other businesses or gathering places with more traffic won’t be allowed to reopen until May 15.
Jackson, Johnson and Wyandotte counties have separate plans in various stages of development that dictate when certain kinds of businesses will be allowed to reopen under certain restrictions. But they have “many commonalities,” Jackson County spokeswoman Marshanna Smith said.
Clifford said Jackson County will begin sharing parts of its plan next week. The Unified Government announced its plan on Thursday and the Johnson County Board of Commissioners will attempt to finalize their rules late Friday afternoon.
This story was originally published May 1, 2020 at 11:30 AM.
