The Unified Government Commission unanimously extended the state of local health emergency through April 1 at the Thursday, Dec. 3, meeting.
Mayor David Alvey said the reason for the commission to consider this was to allow the UG to access federal money.
Jeff Conway, assistant UG counsel, said the UG is aligning itself with the federal government’s dates in this action.
Federal funds can flow to local communities as long as the local communities have a state of emergency in effect, he said.
The resolution that passed stated, “Coordinated vaccination efforts will be necessary to address the spread of variants and to implement the administration of vaccine boosters, and the Unified Government continues to incur significant costs associated with those vaccination efforts.”
Case numbers reported
Wyandotte County reported a cumulative 25,793 cases on Friday, Dec. 3, according to the Unified Government Health Department’s COVID-19 webpage. There were a cumulative total of 388 deaths on Friday.
The Mid-America Regional Council reported 239,177 cumulative cases on Friday in Greater Kansas City, a nine-county area. There was a cumulative total of 3,268 deaths. The daily average of new hospitalizations was 109.
Kansas reported 474,479 cumulative COVID cases with 6,730 deaths on Friday, an increase of 4,712 cases and 25 deaths since Wednesday, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
For information about how to get a vaccine, visit the UG Health Department’s COVID webpage at https://www.wycokck.org/Departments/Health/Communicable-Disease/Coronavirus-COVID-19-Information or call 311.
Vaccine information also is available at www.vaccines.gov.