‘Winning the battle’: Kansas health official says mask mandates decrease COVID cases

A Kansas health official says counties with mask mandates reduced coronavirus case numbers, while case numbers remained steady in areas that don’t require face coverings.

While new confirmed coronavirus cases across Kansas have trended downward, Dr. Lee Norman, the secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said Wednesday that COVID-19 case reductions could be attributed to the 15 counties that require masks. Those include Wyandotte, Johnson, Sedgwick and Shawnee.

Those counties, Norman said, represent about two-thirds of the state’s population and tend to have denser urban populations and a greater proportion of people from underrepresented backgrounds who are more likely to contract the virus and face complications.

Johnson County began mandating masks on July 3 when the seven-day rolling average of new COVID-19 cases sat at 72.

Efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19, including stay-at-home orders and masks, are not immediate because of the virus’s cycle of transmission and symptoms.

Two weeks later, Johnson County hit a high of 120 new cases per day, but since then, the number has been dropping.

Wyandotte County’s masking requirement went into effect June 30. The seven-day rolling average was 46 and it continued increasing until July 22 when it hit 96. As of Thursday, it was 59.

Even though Gov. Laura Kelly announced a mask mandate in public buildings as case numbers across the state soared in early July, about 80% of the state’s 105 counties refused to comply with the executive order, mainly opting for mask recommendations instead. In total, 90 counties did not institute a mask mandate, Norman said.

“Some counties have been the control group with no mask and some counties have been the experimental group where masks are worn,” Norman said, “and the experimental group is winning the battle. All of the improvement in the case development comes from those counties wearing masks.”

This story was originally published August 6, 2020 at 8:38 PM.