TOPEKA, Kansas — With the number of new coronavirus cases still rising steadily and the state’s economy stuck in reverse, Gov. Laura Kelly announced her plans for a phased-in reopening.
The governor’s plan — essentially it lets retailers, restaurants and churches ease into a new normal — comes despite Kansas lagging other states in testing for COVID-19 and growing outbreaks clustered near meatpacking plants.
She called the pandemic a “period of unimaginable sorrow and loss” that “shined a glaring spotlight on the fractures of our society, the inequities of our economy, the strains on our public health infrastructure and the dangers of our politics.”
Kelly said the state’s health officials believe that Kansas is close to its peak infection rate, “if we haven’t surpassed it.”
Beginning next Monday, May 4, previously nonessential retailers can reopen for business, people can travel around Kansas at will and at least some dine-in restaurants around Kansas will be able to offer customers a seat — if they can keep groups of patrons separate from each other.
Gatherings remain limited to no more than 10 people. In the next phase, that limit will grow to 30 people. Churches can resume services, but they’ll face the same social distancing rules as operations like restaurants.
Many businesses will be allowed to reopen. But the governor said bars and nightclubs will be restricted to curbside and carryout services unless they make more money selling food than booze.
The state’s casinos will remain closed. Likewise for theaters, museums and other indoor gathering spots. Gyms will also stay closed, along with community centers and entertainment venues for 2,000 or more people.
Graduations, festivals and fairs are prohibited. Still closed are public pools, sporting events, summer camps, hair, nail and tanning salons, tattoo parlors; and other “personal service businesses where close contact cannot be avoided.”
The various phases are based on public health guidelines that would let the economy rev up again as long as contact tracing — the ability to spot who’s been exposed to the virus — is still practical.
And the effort to keep people six feet apart isn’t absolute. People should be able to pass each other at closer distances briefly, but Kelly’s plan would rule out situations where people are close together for more than 10 minutes.
Kelly also said cities and counties can issue stricter local stay-at-home orders. For instance, an extension of the stay-at-home order in Wyandotte County won’t disappear because of Kelly’s reopening orders.
The governor encouraged Kansans to reschedule non-coronavirus medical care they’d postponed because of the outbreak.
“Our hospitals … are ready now to begin seeing non-COVID-related patients,” she said.
Those rules apply to the first phase of her plan, which will last at least two weeks starting Monday. Kelly said her plan is not “etched in stone.” Rather, the governor said it aims to give families and businesses a framework for planning.
“We will, at some point,” she said, “need to reconfigure … as new trends emerge.”
