Gov. Laura Kelly said today in a news conference that she is moving forward with plans to restart the economy.
She said the state is looking at metrics that would allow some restrictions to be lifted on May 4, and right now, it appears that it would be safe to do that. While the governor did not yet announce the details of the reopening plans, she is working on plans that are to be announced later this week, she added.
Besides downward trends in hospitalizations and deaths, the state also has made some progress on the acquisition of testing, helping the state ramp up its testing to a more robust level than before, Gov. Kelly said.
When the state lifts the stay-at-home order, the local communities would be free to issue their own orders that apply to their counties.
“When we lift the statewide stay-at-home order, we then reauthorize the local counties to take our guidelines and be more restrictive if they think it’s warranted in their particular environment,” Gov. Kelly said.
That authority will go back to the counties to put in measures that are more restrictive than the ones statewide, she said. The state still has the authority to put in place measures that override what is done in a local county, although the state doesn’t want to have to do that, according to the governor.
Gov. Kelly said there may have been more testing going on than has been reported because private labs were doing 80 percent of the testing and did not always report negative tests to the state, only positive results.
Kansas reported 3,328 positive COVID-19 cases from 75 counties today, an increase of 154 cases, according to Gov. Kelly. The state now has 120 total deaths.
Two more deaths were reported today in Wyandotte County from people who had tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Unified Government Health Department webpage.
In addition, there was a death of an inmate from the Lansing Correctional Facility over 50 years old with underlying health conditions, according to state officials.
Dr. Lee Norman, Kansas secretary of health, said today that they will be using the number of hospitalizations, number of deaths per capita and number of deaths per positive cases in determining whether the state is ready to reopen.
He said those numbers are decreasing and that is encouraging. While there will be an uptick in the number of positive cases, he said things are not getting worse in reality.
While there were 378 positive COVID-19 cases reported at the Kansas meatpacking plants, so far there were no deaths, he said, and possibly one hospitalization. Most of those positive cases are asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic, he said. He said the counts would peak and then drop.
When asked why the state didn’t reopen immediately, Dr. Norman said there were still a lot of COVID-19 cases out there, and it would be imprudent to reopen now, taking a big leap before taking a more measured approach. “You have to walk before you can run,” he said.
At the current run rate, they have the ability to test everyone who’s symptomatic now, he added.
Gov. Kelly said it was important to have in-depth discussions with all stakeholders, allowing them to have input, before lifting the order.
Gov. Kelly said today she had a call with the White House and Kansas will receive equipment that will sterilize N95 masks and make them safe to use for workers who originally used them. They will extend the life of the masks up to 20 times, she said. Up to 80,000 masks a day can be sanitized by this system, she said. The system will go into operation next week, she added.
The governor also said she has been gathering input from different businesses, legislators, health care representatives and local communities on reopening the state. She will announce a plan on Thursday.
State officials also announced a new Kansas COVID-19 website at https://covid.ks.gov/. The website includes not just medical and case information, but also information about job assistance, unemployment benefits, as well as social services that are available.
Dr. Norman said the state is monitoring 55 clusters, including 18 in long-term care facilities with 401 cases and 68 deaths.
Also, there are clusters in two group living arrangements with 28 cases and zero deaths; Lansing Correctional Facility, 115 cases and one death; two health care facilities, 16 cases, zero deaths; six religious gatherings, 99 cases and eight deaths; 21 private companies, 170 cases and four deaths; and six meatpacking facilities, 378 cases and zero deaths.
Testing and contact tracing will be the key to reopening, he said.
There are 20 existing KDHE staff who are being trained to do contact tracing in Lyon, Ford, Finney and Seward counties, he said. Then they will bring in about 400 volunteers to do case tracking, in groups of 50, he said.
Dr. Norman said a toxicologist and emergency medicine physician at the Kansas Poison Control Center has seen a more than 40 percent increase in cleaning chemical cases, including a person who drank a cleaning product because of the advice he received. Dr. Norman said they are trying to present counter-messages to ingesting cleaning chemicals.
Gov. Kelly said another round of $320 billion federal funding for small business loans was approved today, and she encouraged Kansas businesses to put in their applications as soon as possible, if they have not already done so.
Dr. Norman said it is likely that even when it reopens, society probably will change the way they interact in business and groups of people. Social distancing probably will remain for a long time.
Some of the counties’ reports, according to the KDHE: Ford (Dodge City area), 516 cases; Johnson County, 440 cases; Seward (Liberal area), 349 cases; Sedgwick (Wichita area), 339 cases; Leavenworth County, 184 cases; Finney (Garden City area), 175 cases; Lyon County (Emporia area), 147 cases; Shawnee, 105 cases; Coffey (Burlington area), 48 cases; Douglas (Lawrence area), 48 cases; Riley County (Manhattan area), 45 cases; Reno County, 26; Labette County, 21; McPherson County, 20; Saline County, 19; Montgomery County, 16; Butler County, 14; Wabaunsee County, 15; Franklin County, 12; and Geary County, 11.
Gov. Kelly’s news conference is on video at https://www.facebook.com/GovLauraKelly/videos/912623055864233/.
The Kansas COVID-19 website is at https://covid.ks.gov/.
The Kansas COVID-19 resource page is at https://govstatus.egov.com/coronavirus
The UG’s COVID-19 webpage is at https://alpha.wycokck.org/Coronavirus-COVID-19-Information.
Information from the CDC is at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/.