Summer-like weather is arriving, with temperatures in the 80s for the next several days, according to the National Weather Service forecast.
Today’s high is expected to be near 80, with sunny skies, the weather service said. It will be a stretch of quiet weather through Sunday.
Starting Monday, rain is back in the forecast, through Wednesday, according to the weather service.
Today, it will be sunny, with a high near 80 and a light west wind, the weather service said.
Tonight, it will be mostly clear, with a low around 60 and a calm wind becoming south southwest around 5 mph after midnight, according to the weather service.
Friday, it will be sunny, with a high near 85 and a southwest wind of 3 to 8 mph, the weather service said.
Friday night, it will be mostly clear, with a low around 66 and a south southwest wind of 6 mph, according to the weather service.
Saturday, it will be sunny, with a high near 87 and a south southwest wind of 6 to 11 mph, gusting as high as 18 mph, the weather service said.
Saturday night, it will be mostly clear, with a low of 68, according to the weather service.
Sunday, it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 85, the weather service said.
Sunday night, it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of 68, according to the weather service.
Monday, there is a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1 p.m., with a high near 83, the weather service said.
Monday night, there is a 30 percent chance of showers, with a low of 68, according to the weather service.
Tuesday, there is a 60 percent chance of showers and possibly a thunderstorm, with a high near 85, the weather service said.
Tuesday night, there is a 30 percent chance of showers with a low of 68, according to the weather service.
Wednesday, there is a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, with a high near 85, the weather service said.
When the CDC issued its recent guidelines that loosened mask mandates, it undermined some of the local efforts to fight COVID-19 in Wyandotte County, according to Mayor David Alvey.
He made his remarks on Wednesday morning during a news conference at the University of Kansas Health System.
The mayor said Wyandotte County’s experience was not the same as other counties in the metropolitan area. Residents here were not getting vaccinated as much as some other nearby counties.
The Unified Government Commission let its mask mandate and health orders expire on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. The other surrounding counties had already lifted their mask mandates. Some residents here stopped wearing masks once they heard the CDC guidance, even though the local mask mandate was still in effect for some days after the CDC made its announcement.
“It was very hard to continue to sustain that because CDC kind of overrode, I think, what we might even do locally, which is unfortunate,” he said.
“That’s been one of the dynamics throughout the whole pandemic, is the lack of consistency from the federal level all the way down to the local level,” Mayor Alvey said.
If everyone had come together to craft a common response, it would have been much better and much more effective, he said.
Also, another reason the mask mandate was dropped was that the data from Wyandotte County was much better on the infection rate and positivity rate, so it seemed it was time to let the mandate expire, he added.
Mayor Alvey said Wyandotte County was very aware of its health rankings in the state, near the bottom of the state. It has a high population of vulnerable individuals, he said.
From the beginning of the pandemic, the local government decided if they didn’t try to stop COVID-19, it would result in the deaths of many people, according to the mayor. They studied what was happening in New York, and felt they had a two-week window before it hit Wyandotte County.
“We empowered our public health department to do what it needed to do to protect our citizens,” Mayor Alvey said.
Early in the crisis, they felt if they didn’t pass emergency orders, stay-at-home orders and other health orders, it would be the same as saying it was OK for some residents to die, he said.
“So, tell me what that number is and point out those individuals to me, because as the chief elected official in Wyandotte County, I can’t get up and say I’m OK if a certain percentage of people die,” he said.
It was important to the local government to stomp the virus out, he said.
Mayor Alvey said the most recent numbers on the economy, from the Legends area, showed they were 6 percent better compared to where they were in 2019.
He added that some businesses and the UG would still require people to wear a mask. They are protecting some people who have immunocompromised systems, he added.
Counties that had mask mandates, adjacent to those counties without a mask mandate, had only about a 10 percent difference in business activity, he said. To him that means people restricted their own personal activity to protect themselves, loved ones and others.
If part of the pushback is that it’s personal responsibility, then people should respect the decisions of businesses to take personal responsibility, he said.
Mayor Alvey said he has received some reports of people going into businesses and complaining because they’re still asked to mask.
“If it’s about personal responsibility, respect their personal responsibility for their own business and activities,” Mayor Alvey said.
Wyandotte County residents were about 33 percent vaccinated, according to recent figures. When people tell him they don’t want the vaccine because they don’t know what is in it, he asks them if they knew what was in the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, or if they knew what was in the polio vaccine.
There is plenty of evidence and research on the vaccines, he said.
“We’re doing whatever we can, we’re being much more targeted,” he said about efforts to vaccinate more people. They will send teams out to churches and groups that want to have a vaccination event, he added.
Those who haven’t received a vaccine yet will still see people who are not vaccinated getting sick, and that may help them decide to get a vaccine, he hopes.
There are regular meetings with community and business groups to encourage vaccinations, he said. There is a vaccination event coming up this week at the Kansas Speedway.
It’s a little discouraging that some businesses don’t seem to want to encourage vaccinations, he said. It’s discouraging that they might have to see more spread among their employees and customers before they do this.
“It’s very difficult now because of what’s happened in the state Legislature in Kansas really discouraging local governments, and continuing to drive away from the local governments the authority to do something,” he said. “In a way we’ve been hamstrung by what’s happened in the Kansas Legislature.”
He said a lot of people in Wyandotte County, including the Hispanic community, continued to come together during the pandemic as close extended families, and there may have been more spread than was recorded. They may have concluded they already had COVID-19, and did not need the vaccine, according to the mayor.
But as reported on Wednesday at the news conference, the host immunity from getting sick with COVID-19 is not as strong as the vaccine immunity, he said. Some of the nuances are lost on people, he added.
He said he’s learned during the pandemic that doing remote government meetings makes government more accessible, because residents have to make a bigger commitment to go to meetings in person.
Also, it’s spurred greater efforts to work through the disparate health outcomes for different populations, he said.
Another positive was a collaborative effort they started involving different segments of the community, to have a daily call to disseminate information, take questions and solve problems together, according to the mayor.
The first spread was through religious congregations in the county, so he called together the pastors and asked them to get information to the congregations, and communications efforts have been extremely helpful, he said. The Wednesday media update is online at https://www.facebook.com/kuhospital/videos/324696429252974.
Free walk-in vaccinations available Thursday
Free walk-in COVID-19 vaccinations will be available for everyone 12 and older from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, June 3, at the Kansas National Guard Armory, 100 S. 20th St., (near 18th and Ridge), Kansas City, Kansas.
Those who receive COVID-19 vaccinations are asked to consider bringing an ID to make the process go faster.
The Health Department is doing more mobile COVID-19 vaccinations, and people may request vaccines to be given at different sites in the community by going to WycoVaccines.org and clicking on “mobile vaccine request.” People also may request a ride to vaccination sites on the same page.
Those who wish to schedule an appointment may use the Health Department’s self-scheduling tool at WycoVaccines.org and click on a blue button that says, “Click here to schedule an appointment online.” The page is available in Spanish by clicking at the top of the page. Walk-in appointments also are welcome.
Those who don’t have an internet connection may call 3-1-1 or 913-573-5311 for assistance in scheduling their vaccination appointment time and date.
To see more information about Health Department vaccinations and next week’s schedule, visit WycoVaccines.org.
Other sites available for vaccinations
Vaccinations at KU Health System are open to the public. Current patients may use MyChart to make an appointment. Others may call 913-588-1227 or visit kansashealthsystem.com/vaccine to make an appointment to get vaccinated. KU Health System currently is vaccinating residents of Kansas and Missouri who are 12 or older, by appointment only. Those under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian throughout the appointment.
There are also pharmacies giving free COVID-19 vaccinations in Wyandotte County by appointment, when available. These include Price Chopper and Hen House pharmacies, which are now also accepting walk-in vaccinations or appointments, and are starting vaccinations for age 12 and up at those pharmacies that are giving Pfizer vaccine (see https://www.ballsfoodspharmacy.com/).
CVS has announced walk-in appointments for COVID-19 vaccine at some of its stores. Those interested in getting a vaccination at a CVS pharmacy are asked to visit a CVS website in order to make sure there is vaccine available. The website is at www.cvs.com/. Walgreens and Walmart also were listed on www.vaccines.gov as giving vaccinations.
Other pharmacies and sites giving vaccines are listed at www.vaccines.gov. The website also tells whether vaccines are in stock at the locations.
Case numbers reported
There was a slight rise in the number of active COVID-19 patients on Wednesday morning at the University of Kansas Health System, according to Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control. There were five active COVID-19 patients, an increase of three since Tuesday. One of the patients was in the intensive care unit, no change from Tuesday. Seven other patients were hospitalized because of COVID-19 but were not in the acute infection phase, a decrease of one from Tuesday. The total is 12 patients, an increase of two from Tuesday. There have been no inpatient COVID-19 deaths since May 23.
Wyandotte County reported an increase of 97 COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, June 2, for a cumulative 18,847 cases, according to the Unified Government Health Department’s COVID-19 webpage. There was a cumulative total of 295 deaths reported, an increase of one since Tuesday.
The Mid-America Regional Council’s COVID-19 dashboard reported 174,583 cumulative, COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, an increase of 45 cases since Tuesday in the Kansas City region. The daily average of new hospitalizations was 49.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported 314,523 cumulative COVID-19 cases in Kansas on Wednesday, June 2, an increase of 526 cases since Friday, May 28. There were a total of 5,080 cumulative deaths reported statewide, an increase of four.
Johnson County had a cumulative 59,208 cases on Wednesday, an increase of 64 since Friday, according to the KDHE. Leavenworth County had a cumulative 7,264 cases on Wednesday, an increase of nine since Friday. Sedgwick County had a cumulative 57,376 cases on Wednesday, an increase of 104 since Friday.
The Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 dashboard on Wednesday night reported 33,306,936 cumulative COVID-19 cases in the United States, with 595,825 total deaths reported nationwide. There were 23,010 new cases nationwide and 641 new deaths nationwide. States with rising numbers of new cases were Florida, 5,937; North Carolina, 2,089; California, 1,404; Washington, 1,135; and Michigan, 984. Countries with rising numbers of new cases were India, 132,788; Brazil, 78,926; Argentina, 35,355; Colombia, 25,966; and U.S., 23,010, according to Johns Hopkins information.
Free testing available Thursday
Free COVID-19 testing will be offered from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, June 3, at the Kansas National Guard Armory, 100 S. 20th St., (near 18th and Ridge), Kansas City, Kansas.
One of the WellHealth sites for free COVID-19 testing is open beginning at 8 a.m. Thursday, June 3, at Lowe’s at 6920 State Ave., Kansas City, Kansas. Appointments are required. For more information, to see other testing sites and to make an appointment, visit https://www.gogettested.com/kansas.
