Wyandotte County doesn’t plan any drastic enforcement of the new mask order, but it will emphasize education, as it did earlier in the stay-at-home orders, according to a Unified Government Health Department spokesman.
With cases of COVID-19 rising in Kansas and in Wyandotte County recently, both the county and the state have issued mask orders. Both orders mandate people to wear masks in public places, including outdoors and indoors, with some exceptions.
The Wyandotte County mask order is now in effect and will be in effect until the governor’s mask order goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday, July 2, said Janell Friesen, Health Department spokesman. If anything would happen to the governor’s order, the Wyandotte County order on masks would still be in effect.
“Most of the requirements in the state order and the Wyandotte County order are very similar,” Friesen said.
One difference she has noticed is that in the governor’s order, there is more responsibility on businesses to implement the mask order. Businesses are required to make their employees wear masks, as well as to require patrons to wear masks.
The Health Department currently is comparing the two orders, to see the differences, but the orders are very similar, she said.
“For the most part, when you’re in doubt, you probably need to wear a mask,” she said. Ther are exceptions for health and safety reasons, for people who can’t wear a mask, which is a relatively small number of people, for those who have breathing problems and those unable to remove masks without assistance, as well as for young children under 5.
For businesses, the governor’s order may require them to have signs, she said. The Health Department will be working on signs that businesses can use.
Friesen said the Health Department will offer education and resources if they are seeing places that don’t follow the new masking order.
“This is not about punishment, it’s about keeping people safe,” she said. They will make sure a business knows about the order and can implement it.
She said the Health Department also will be working on providing police officers with information materials so that as they go about their day, they can provide that information to people and educate them about what is covered by the order.
If the Health Department has supplies available, such as donated masks, it could make that available to people, and perhaps officers could hand them out, she said.
While the orders include some wording about enforcement, the focus right now is making sure everyone knows about the mask order and is able to take the steps to wear a mask, she said. They don’t anticipate having to do any drastic enforcement such as arrests. The state’s attorney general earlier today issued a memo that said he doesn’t think arrests can be made for violating health orders, after the Legislature passed a law, HB 2016, making violations a civil matter.
Friesen said law enforcement played a role of providing education and helping to be a resource in the past health orders.
Both orders exempt the deaf and hard-of-hearing, as they may need to read lips, and those under 5, as well as people who have medical conditions such as COPD, along with those who have a disability where they can’t remove their masks. Masks should not be worn by children under 2, according to health experts.
The governor’s order has some exemptions for legislative events and also for the courts that the local order didn’t include.
The governor’s mask order also uses a little different language in discussing exemptions to wearing masks in restaurants, however, in general, the orders are similar and Wyandotte Countians need to be wearing masks in spaces indoors and outdoors, she said.
The governor’s new executive order on masks is at https://governor.kansas.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20200702093130003.pdf.
The governor’s news release on the new mask order is at https://governor.kansas.gov/governor-laura-kelly-signs-executive-order-mandating-masks-in-public-spaces/.
Wyandotte County has a frequently-asked-questions page on the local order requiring masks at https://www.wycokck.org/WycoKCK/media/Health-Department/Documents/Communicable%20Disease/COVID19/07012020_MaskOrderFAQ.pdf.
Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s enforcement memo is at https://ag.ks.gov/docs/default-source/documents/addendum-3-to-march-24-law-enforcement-duties-and-authorities-memo.pdf?sfvrsn=d088af1a_3
The Wyandotte County mask order is at https://www.wycokck.org/WycoKCK/media/Health-Department/Documents/Communicable%20Disease/COVID19/06272020LocalHealthOfficerOrderRegardingMasks.pdf.
A news release on the Wyandotte County mask order is at https://www.wycokck.org/WycoKCK/media/Health-Department/Documents/Communicable%20Disease/COVID19/06272020PressReleaseLHORequiresPublicToWearMasks.pdf.