The Unified Government Commission tonight approved the extension of the local health emergency order for COVID-19 from May 18 through July 17 in Wyandotte County.
The commission took a 10-0 vote, approving the extension of an order that expires on May 18.
UG Administrator Doug Bach said the order will give the UG emergency powers, and will allow the UG to seek reimbursement from the federal and state governments.
The original emergency declaration was on March 13 for seven days, then on March 19 was extended 60 days until May 18. According to UG officials, the declaration will avoid any kind of gap between emergency declarations that could affect federal or state reimbursements.
More than a million dollars approved to fight COVID-19
The UG Commission also approved, without discussion on a consent agenda vote, funding of $952,700 for the UG Health and Emergency Management departments to fight COVID-19. According to the agenda, FEMA could cover 85 percent of the costs.
Another request for general operating expenses year-to-date to fight COVID-19 totals $292,375.
According to agenda information, $201,500 will go for testing; $260,000 for personal protective equipment; $57,600 for contact tracing; $80,000 for project management; $57,600 for the COVID call line; and $296,000 for communications.
From the $292,375 general operating expenditure to fight COVID-19, $92,096 will go to the Fire Department for personal protective gear; $52,642 to community programs for defogger machines and personal protective equipment; $50,000 to the Health Department for COVID-19 testing; $35,110 to the Police Department for employee protective measures; $25,850 to the Sheriff’s Department for testing and personal protective equipment; $14,200 to Emergency Management for personal protective gear; $10,000 to the District Attorney’s office for remote office setup; $3,600 to the Municipal Court for remote office setup; $2,909 to General Services for remove office setup; $2,610 to Community Corrections for remote office setup; $1,949 to Public Works for deep clean for work areas; and $1,409 to Human Resources for remote office setup.
When will the UG move into the next phase of the ReStart WyCo plan?
The UG is not in the position to announce a date yet for the transition from the “red zone” to the “yellow zone,” according to Bach. Earlier, health officials said the “red zone,” which started May 11, would be at least a full two weeks. It would be at least through May 25.
Juliann Van Liew, new director of the UG Health Department, said Wyandotte County’s rate of positive cases and deaths per 100,000 is still higher than surrounding areas. Wyandotte County’s rate is 674.55 per 100,000, compared to the Kansas City, Missouri, rate of 163.89, the Johnson County rate of 104.53 and the state of Kansas rate of 244.64.
Kansas numbers statewide continue to climb, she said. The governor has decided to move to “phase 1.5” today instead of the second phase, she noted.
Wyandotte County’s 14-day rolling average for new cases appears to have reached a sort of plateau, she said, although they are staying cautious. They are also seeing a little delay on test results, having changed to a KU lab, and the UG Health Department is now two to three days behind on their data, she said.
Wyandotte County is seeing a downward trend on rolling averages of deaths, she said, which is a good sign. The cases they are seeing now are largely linked to workplaces and outbreaks, with a significantly younger population affected, and a lower number of deaths, she said.
The Health Department also is tracking a positivity rate, she said, comparing positive cases to the total number of tests, and it appears that there is a slight downward trend. She said they are “cautiously optimistic.”
They are doing more testing of asymptomatic people, she added, such as people who were exposed to a positive case, and that can bring the positivity rate down if the person tests negative.
During the last two weeks, Vibrant Health has offered pop-up sites through the community, and the positivity rate is going down as a result.
Besides testing at Vibrant Health and Swope Health, the Health Department has held a testing site in its parking lot each afternoon. In addition, Dr. Sharon Lee Family Health Clinic has held testing. Heart-to-Heart International will be starting to test. Bonner Springs Walmart and the Parallel Walmart in Kansas City, Kansas, are planning drive-through testing three times a week starting Friday morning.
Dr. Erin Corriveau, Wyandotte County deputy health officer, said the decision on moving to another zone would be made by Thursday, May 21.
“We may have to pump the brakes and stay in the ‘red zone’ for longer, or even stay there for an extended period of time,” Dr. Corriveau said.
The Health Department is getting a lot of questions about hair salons and barbershops, which aren’t supposed to open until the “yellow zone,” she said.
Dr. Corriveau said the Health Department has just received thousands of masks from a donor, and will be able to distribute the masks shortly.
Dr. Allen Greiner, Wyandotte County chief medical officer, said decisions to change zones will be weighed over the full 14-day period.
The goal is to see a decrease in hospitalizations and deaths in Wyandotte County and surrounding area hospitals over a 14-day period, he said. Also, the Health Department will be watching the percentage positive rate of testing in Wyandotte County and the surrounding area for a 14-day period.
Dr. Greiner said Heart-to-Heart International is launching community testing across the metropolitan area and will include Wyandotte County. He said they will test as many asymptomatic persons as possible, probably leading to more negative tests to drive the rate down. It will also lead to more positive cases, that will then result in more contact tracing, he said.
Rapid testing, capacity at health care facilities and capacity to contact trace are required.
“Testing goes hand in hand with contact tracing. The value of the testing is only there if you’ve got the ability to follow up with those people, find out who they’ve been around,” he said. The Health Department will call people who are positive, get them to quarantine, find out who they have had contact with, call them and get people to quarantine for 14 days.
Dr. Greiner said the goal is to have 10 percent testing by mid-July. There may be a need for cycles of retesting, such as in long-term care facilities, he said.
New UG Health Department director named
Bach tonight announced the appointment of Juliann Van Liew, who manages operations in the Health Department, as the new director of the UG Health Department. Terrie Garrison had served as interim director.
Van Liew has a bachelor’s degree in international relations and political science from Drake University and a master’s degree in public health from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. In the past she has managed performance and quality improvement for visiting nurse agencies and a safety net health care clinic.
During the past two years, Van Liew has worked at the UG Health Department with quality improvement, performance management, workforce development and accreditation, also working with members of the community to implement a Community Health Improvement Plan to address health access issues, jobs and education, safe and affordable housing and violence prevention, according to information from the UG.
To view the Thursday night UG Commission special session, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–ruae1lHIY.
More information about the “red zone” rules is online at the ReStart WyCo hub at https://wyandotte-county-covid-19-hub-unifiedgov.hub.arcgis.com/pages/restartwyco.
The ReStart WyCo plan is at https://www.wycokck.org/WycoKCK/media/Health-Department/Documents/Communicable%20Disease/COVID19/RestartWYCOGuidanceDocument043020.pdf.
Several Wyandotte County pop-up testing sites are listed at https://wyandotte-county-covid-19-hub-unifiedgov.hub.arcgis.com/pages/what-to-do-if-you-think-you-have-covid-19.
The UG’s COVID-19 webpage is at https://alpha.wycokck.org/Coronavirus-COVID-19-Information.
The Kansas COVID-19 website is at https://covid.ks.gov/.
The Kansas COVID-19 resource page is at https://govstatus.egov.com/coronavirus
Information from the CDC is at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/.
This local government is dangerously trampling on our constitutional rights using this emergency to remove our freedom to assemble, work & personal pursuit. The constitution states no emergency shall supersede these basic rights. Any law implementing this type of action is considered null and void! My suggestion is would be to open the county for business with strongly mentioning ppe be worn to protect yourself!! Thank you for your time and efforts, I would like to receive any thoughts or suggestions. Yours, Don Saint
In my opinion, the UG is not using science or data to pursue a solution. I think data would point out that COVID hot spots are in a few locations with very specific situations. Science points out that this disease attacks people in poor health. Why not pursue and attack those two issues and open up the rest of the county? We are going to have to learn to live with this virus. We might as well start now.
Please open the county for all business. We are not dying from covid, we are dying from the ug trying to wait to get state and federal moneys. It is a farce as usual with the ug.
$952,700 of which 85%FEMA ……
“We” the taxpayers pay FEMA.
Yes, WYCO has high cases of disease.
From Health Care workers -it’s not pretty to see the sick and dying.
How many are caused by other causes? ie Heart Disease / Flu
Kansas is dying from being Shut Down and not allowed to make a living.
Freedom! Please figure out how to best protect the vulnerable and let the rest of us live our lives and open all businesses. Enough of this craziness!
I am all for being safe and protecting each other, but I think we can accomplish that with businesses open with some restrictions but I think we should follow the state guidelines and what Governor Kelly recommends. The only reason our numbers are what they are is because of a few facilities that didn’t take the proper precautions, but that can happen anywhere that people are careless. Next phase UG! We can do this.
The governor failed to take care of nursing homes and prisons. If she had focused on the problem instead of shutting the whole state down, we would have fewer deaths and better economy.
“UG Administrator Doug Bach said the order will give the UG emergency powers, and will allow the UG to seek reimbursement from the federal and state governments.”
All they care about it the money they get from DC and the power to perpetuate their corruption, to h— with local business who will go bankrupt because of their tyrannical greed as their customers go to the large corporate stores and other counties with honest governments.