Kansas City Council approves mask mandate extension to late September
The Kansas City Council on Thursday approved an extension to the city’s mask mandate, one day after dozens of people decried public health advice at a public committee meeting.
The ordinance, which passed with two no votes Thursday, extends the indoor mask mandate to Sept. 23.
Council members Brandon Ellington, District 3 at-large and Heather Hall, District 1, voted against the mandate. Councilwoman Katheryn Shields, District 4 at-large, was absent.
A few anti-mask protesters, carrying anti-mask signs, were in attendance. Some pulled their masks below their noses. One woman wore a yellow star on her shirt.
On Thursday, the Kansas City metro area added 931 new cases of COVID-19. The weekly average was 653 cases. One week ago, it was 699 and two weeks ago, it was 737. There have been 2,452 deaths of COVID-19.
Ellington said he watched Wednesday’s committee hearing, but said his rationale differed from what was said then.
“The reason I’m actually going to be a no vote is because I’m pro-choice not pro-life. I believe people should have the choice of their healthcare all the way around,” he said.
When Ellington said he did not have an issue with people who do not wear masks and have not been vaccinated, a man in the crowd shouted out, “Thank you, Brandon.”
He also mentioned the preliminary injunction filed in St. Louis’ mask mandate and said he was not sure about Kansas City’s legal jurisdiction to issue a mandate.
Councilwoman Hall said she believes in “personal freedoms and liberties,” and that she would vote no on any mandate.
After the meeting, Hall said that people should not have to “live in a country that has mandates.”
After the ordinance passed, members of the public booed the council. One woman shouted out that the mandate was a “violation of civil rights” and “unconstitutional.”
Andrea Bough, councilwoman for District 6 at-large, walked into a hospital, the same one where she was born, in Sikeston to say goodbye to her mother in December. Her mother, 86, had tested positive for COVID-19 four days before Christmas. She hadn’t seen her mother, who lived in an assisted living facility, since the Christmas before.
“The image of my mother gasping for air is one that I will never forget,” Bough said. She became emotional after her first thought, “thinking there was some light at the end of this dark tunnel and that others may be spared of what I had to endure.
“We have the tools to help limit the spread,” Bough said. While she doesn’t want to continue to wear a mask, she said, “we have not kept this virus at bay.”
After the ordinance passed, members of the public booed the council. One woman shouted out that the mandate was a “violation of civil rights” and “unconstitutional.”
Members of the public who took off their masks sounded off on the ordinance during a special sitting of the City Council’s Transportation, Infrastructure, and Operations Committee Wednesday evening, sharing debunked COVID-19 myths and calling the mandate tyrannical.
Days after Kansas City’s mask mandate went into effect, anti-mask protesters gathered outside City Hall.
Local and national health experts alike have continuously heralded masks and vaccination as the most promising path toward controlling the pandemic, which has seen a major surge in the last month due to the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant.
Kansas City’s mandate, which went into effect on Aug. 2, applies those over the age of 5 in indoor spaces regardless of vaccination status, with some exemptions.
The same process would happen in September if the council decides the mandate needs to be extended, due to a new Missouri law that requires public health restrictions to be reviewed by the council every 30 days.
This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 4:25 PM.
