Category: COVID-19

Help offered from various sources for businesses, individuals

Opinion column

by Murrel Bland

The bad news is that these are uncertain times for businesses. The good news is there are many resources for those who have lost business because of the coronavirus pandemic.

That was quite obvious as I had a recent extended convention with Greg Kindle, the president of the Wyandotte Economic Development Council. Various areas in Wyandotte County are being hit hard including retail portions of Village West including Nebraska Furniture Mart and Legends Outlet, which are closed.

Kindle said the Small Business Administration is offering help at the website www.sba.gov/page/coronavirus-covid-19-small-business-guidance-loan-resources. Among those resources are Economic Injury Disaster Loans, which includes a $10,000 grant that does not have to be repaid, Express Bridge Loans and the Payroll Protection Program. It is best for a business representative to contact his or her banker to apply for the latter two loans.

Kindle said the Kansas Department of Commerce has launched a live chat to help fill out its COVID-19 webpage. Additional resources can be found at www.wyedc.org/covid-19-resources/.

Kindle said it will be important to find jobs for those who have been displaced. Since the coronavirus scare, the unemployment rate for Wyandotte County has jumped from about 4 percent to more than 10 percent.

I chatted by telephone with restaurant owners who are Business West owners. Loraine Waldeck, who owns MeMa’s Old Fashioned Bakery, 7634 Leavenworth Road, said all things considered, she is doing quite well. What helps MeMa’s is her wholesale commercial accounts including two grocery stores and her carryout customers.

Cassandra Savage, who with her husband Ken own nine McDonald’s restaurants in Wyandotte and Johnson counties, have been hurt by the pandemic, but have been depending on carryout and delivery. Their most profitable store has been and continues to be at 7530 State Ave. She said her company has more than 400 employees and her accountant is busy applying for the Paycheck Protect Program. The couple is rebuilding its store at 4101 Kansas Ave.

The Dotte Spot Bar and Grill at 8123 Parallel Parkway in the Arrowhead Center has closed its dining room and bar, but is continuing to offer a carryout menu.

Donna Tilden, who serves as president of Business West, is a licensed health and life insurance agent. She offers the attachment “COVID-19” Resources to explain what is covered.

Melissa Brune Bynum, the president-elect of Business West and a Unified Government commissioner, offers a resource attachment.

Kathleen Meyers Baska, the owner of Mary Butler Meyers Family Funeral Home, said a message from R. Bryant Hightower, the president of the National Funeral Directors Association, speaks to the need for the funeral home staff and clergy to protect the health of the attendees by limiting those to 10 persons attending the funeral. Further details can be found at the website https://www.marybutlermeyers.com/.

Murrel Bland is the former editor of The Wyandotte West and The Piper Press. He is the executive director of Business West.

Insurance provider websites are addressing how they are handling the COVID-19 situation. Members may click on the links to find out how each carrier is providing no-cost care related to COVID-19, telemedicine appointments, premium payments and more.

Individual health plans:
Ambetter – https://ambetter.sunflowerhealthplan.com/coronavirus.html
Cigna – https://www.cigna.com/coronavirus
Medica – https://medica.com/corp/covid-19
Oscar – https://www.hioscar.com/covid19

Medicare plans:
Aetna – https://www.aetna.com/individuals-families/member-rights-resources/need-to-know-coronavirus.html
BCBSKS – https://www.bluekc.com/consumer/covid-19.html
Cigna – https://www.cigna.com/coronavirus/medicare-and-medicaid
Humana – https://www.humana.com/coronavirus
United Health Care – https://www.uhc.com/health-and-wellness/health-topics/covid-19

Group health insurers:
BCBSKC – https://www.bluekc.com/consumer/covid-19.html
Cigna – https://www.cigna.com/coronavirus/employers
Humana – https://www.humana.com/coronavirus
United Health Care – https://www.uhc.com/health-and-wellness/health-topics/covid-19

  • Insurance list from Donna Tilden, Benefits Design Group
A resource list from the Unified Government Health Department and United Way of Wyandotte County listed resources as of March 31, with some services and information subject to change.

Sporting KC launches community kitchen to provide meals to those affected by COVID-19

Sporting Kansas City has launched Sporting Community Kitchen, partnering with City Foods and Events and Operation BBQ Relief to provide 1,000 free hot meals each weekday to residents in Greater Kansas City affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Beginning today, Sporting Community Kitchen will distribute 250 four-pack meal kits to people and families unable to work because of COVID-19, according to an announcement.

Meal packs will be available during the weekdays through online registration at https://sportingkc.formstack.com/forms/community_kitchen, with curbside pickup at Children’s Mercy Park during designated times, according to the announcement.

Prepared by Plowboys Barbeque, meal packs will include a rotating barbecue entrée, two sides and bread for four people.

Sporting Community Kitchen meal registration will open at 8 a.m. on weekdays and remain open until all 250 slots are filled. Curbside pickup will take place outside of the Budweiser Brew House — located at the northeast corner of Children’s Mercy Park along France Family Drive — from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. throughout the week. Individuals must register online in advance to receive a specific pickup time. No registrations will be accepted in person.

Sporting Community Kitchen will receive distribution support from local volunteers as well as packaging and bagging providers Sysco and Price Chopper. Individuals interested in joining the initiative as volunteers can email [email protected].

Wyandotte County reports 336 COVID-19 cases, one more death

Reports at 10 a.m. Monday from the Unified Government’s COVID-19 page showed 336 total positive COVID-19 cases, with 25 total deaths. It was one more death than Sunday. (UG COVID-19 webpage)
A graph from the UG COVID-19 page showed the total number of positive COVID-19 cases on Monday morning. (UG COVID-19 webpage)
A Zip Code map of positive COVID-19 cases in Wyandotte County showed 120 cases in Zip Code 66112, where the Riverbend nursing facility is; 61 cases in 66109; 51 cases in 66104; 40 cases in 66102; 20 cases in 66106; 13 cases in 66111; 12 cases in 66101; and 9 cases in 66012. (Map from UG COVID-19 website)

Wyandotte County reported 336 total positive COVID-19 cases on Monday, an increase of five cases from Sunday, and one more death.

According to the Unified Government’s COVID-19 webpage at 10 a.m. Monday, there were a total of 25 deaths from COVID-19 in Wyandotte County since the pandemic started.

On Sunday, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported 1,337 positive cases in Kansas, with 56 deaths. Johnson County reported 300 positive cases with 14 deaths on Sunday. Leavenworth County reported 90 confirmed tests and 1 death on Sunday.

Doctors stress good hygiene, social distancing

Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infectious prevention and control at the KU Health System, said the KU Health System had about the same number as COVID-19 patients, 31, in the hospital on Monday, about the same as last week. Almost half were in the intensive care unit, however, he added. A major university hospital in St. Louis currently has about four times more COVID-19 patients on ventilators than what KU Health System has, he added, as not enough social distancing was being practiced there.

Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer at the University of Kansas Health System, said he believes early efforts by the Core 4 local governments in the Kansas City area have worked to keep COVID-19 numbers down. It’s relatively flat here compared to St. Louis, he said.

Dr. Hawkinson said he saw a lot of young people congregating together at the parks over the weekend. It’s imperative that parents and guardians tell the youth not to play together and to keep social distance from each other, he said, as it only takes one to two to bring the virus home to their moms, dads and grandparents.

At some point in the future, as the country prepares to reopen, there will still probably be various levels of the coronavirus, and people still will need to be careful, according to Dr. Stites.

On Monday morning Dr. Stites also talked about the necessity to keep staying home, practicing hygiene, washing hands, social distancing, not touching one’s face, coughing into a sleeve, cleaning off surfaces, and other health practices.

KU medical school to participate in study for health care workers

The University of Kansas Medical School will be participating in a Heroes Study for health care workers.

According to Dr. Mario Castro, vice chair for clinical and translational research and pulmonologist at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, 15,000 health care workers will be able to sign up for the study voluntarily through 60 different sites. As part of the study, half of the health care workers will receive 30 days of hydroxychloroquine, while the other half will receive a placebo, he said.

The University of Kansas School of Medicine hopes to recruit 500 volunteers from the region. The health care workers might include those whose work takes them into contact with COVID-19 patients, including nurses, medical technicians and workers who clean patients’ rooms, according to the KU doctors.

In some areas where there were high numbers of COVID-19 patients, rates of infection of health care workers have been one-fourth or one-fifth, according to the KU doctors.

“We need to know if this medication is safe for health care workers, and we need to also know is it effective, can it prevent health care infections in our workers,” he said.

A website at heroesresearch.org provides more information on the study.

To see the KU Health System news conference, visit https://www.facebook.com/kuhospital/.

The UG’s COVID-19 webpage is at https://alpha.wycokck.org/Coronavirus-COVID-19-Information.

The Kansas COVID-19 resource page is at https://govstatus.egov.com/coronavirus.

The CDC COVID-19 page is at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html.