Johnson County ends mask mandate but strongly urges residents to continue wearing them
Johnson County is dropping its mask mandate, officials decided Thursday, and instead is strongly recommending that residents get vaccinated, continue wearing masks and social distance to help slow the spread of COVID-19.
The Johnson County Board of Commissioners voted 5-1 to pass a resolution stating that officials strongly encourage residents to follow pandemic-related safety protocols. The county mask mandate will expire after Friday.
Commissioner Charlotte O’Hara, who has routinely said she is against COVID-19 mandates, voted against the resolution.
Earlier this week, Kansas City loosened its pandemic-related emergency order, but said that masks are still required in most indoor settings where people are close to one another.
The Platte County Health Department Board of Trustees approved a new order Thursday that is mostly consistent with Kansas City’s.
With Johnson County ending its mandate, Kansas has just three counties with strong mask orders in place. They are Wyandotte, Douglas and Riley counties, according to the Kansas Association of Counties and Kansas Health Institute.
The decision to drop the local health order was made as Johnson County continues to report a relatively low number of new daily COVID-19 cases. The volume of new infections has remained mostly flat since last month.
Meanwhile, county health officials say that demand for COVID-19 vaccines has slowed. More than 43% of eligible residents — those 16 years of age and older — have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Out of eligible residents, 30% are fully immunized, health officials said Thursday.
Officials have projected that by the end of this month, roughly 50% of the county’s eligible population will be at least partially vaccinated.
“We still have quite a way to go to get to population immunity,” said Sanmi Areola, county public health director, on Thursday. “What we want to make very clear to everyone is that wearing masks and physical distancing continue to be very, very critical to our fight against this virus.”
Johnson County Commission Chairman Ed Eilert urged “anyone who is qualified, who is able and desires, should get vaccinated. Vaccination is the best path back to a level of normality.”
The resolution states that county officials strongly recommend that residents get vaccinated, wear masks in public and maintain social distancing. It also encourages businesses to require that customers and employees wear masks and social distance.
“What I am very hopeful for is that people will follow these strongly recommended guidelines,” Commissioner Janeé Hanzlick said. “Throughout this pandemic, I’ve heard from a lot of people who say ‘trust the people; trust them to make good decisions; trust them to do what’s right.’ This is that opportunity. ... This is your opportunity to show that in Johnson County we care about each other and we’re willing to pull together to get through this.”
O’Hara voted against the resolution, saying that she is worried the county continues to hold residents “hostage” and is “infringing on people’s civil liberties.”
Commissioner Michael Ashcraft proposed tabling the discussion, which would have let the mandate expire without the county issuing any guidance to the public, but that motion failed.
About a dozen residents spoke on Thursday, the majority in support of ending the mandate, after months of debate over the issue.
“This country is as divided as I’ve ever seen it and I feel the last thing we need is another divisive tool, such as these masks,” resident Mike O’Hara told commissioners. “I’m a grown adult, and I make adult decisions every day. I do not need anybody forcing me to wear something I don’t believe in.”
Hanzlick said she would have supported extending the mask mandate through May, but emphasized that the county has been put in an especially difficult position after the passage of Senate Bill 40. The law allows residents who feel they’ve been “aggrieved” by a state or local public health order to challenge the policy in court.
At least three Johnson County school districts have been fielding several complaints over their mask requirements under the law. And commissioners have worried that challenges to the county health order could cause greater backlog in the court system.
Commissioner O’Hara sued the Blue Valley school district after she was refused entry into a district hearing because she wasn’t wearing a mask, but a judge dismissed that case.
The county has been averaging more than 30 new cases each day for the past couple of weeks.
The positivity rate — or the number of new cases reported in the past 14 days — has remained mostly flat for weeks. On Thursday, the rate was 3.4%, down from a record high of more than 15% last fall.
“The numbers are a lot better than where we were, but we are not in any way, shape or form out of the woods,” Areola said.
In total, Johnson County has reported 45,298 coronavirus cases, and 648 people have died from the virus.
This story was originally published April 29, 2021 at 11:59 AM.
