The City-Cowley County Health Department issued a local public health order regarding COVID-19 Wednesday following the aftermath of political posturing in Topeka last week that led Gov. Laura Kelly to leave COVID-19 response up to county health departments.
This came after Kelly vetoed a bill Tuesday that aimed to limit gubernatorial authority and emergency powers.
The new order from Cowley County Public Health Officer Thomas Langer, effective immediately, basically adopts the current framework of the Ad Astra Plan to Reopen Kansas originally issued by the state as guidance, but allows for the guidance to be amended locally to fit local needs of the county so long as the public health indicators connected to COVID-19 remain stable or in decline.
The plan essentially holds in place everything COVID-19 related as it currently exists in Cowley County, which is Phase 2 of the state’s plan, which can be viewed below.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported Wednesday afternoon 9.337 positive coronavirus cases across the state, including 822 hospitalizations, 205 deaths and 75,151 negative tests.
The City-Cowley County Health Department has tested 596 people as of Wednesday afternoon since March.
Since a national emergency proclamation was issued by the White House on March 13, the City-Cowley County Health Department has confirmed six positive cases, but two of those cases involved individuals who either live out of the county or have dual-residency in another county. Those records have been transferred to their respective county health departments.
Local cases consist of one woman, an Ark City man who died a week after testing positive in April, a Creekstone employee and a Cowley County resident that became infected with COVID-19 while working in another Kansas community. Since that individual resides in Cowley County, the case was transferred to the City-Cowley County Health Department.
Sedgwick County reports 543 cases, Butler County has 30, Sumner County counts six and Kay County, Oklahoma, has 52 cases and remains at seven deaths.
Overall, the state of Oklahoma reports 6,270 cases and 326 deaths.
Langer said the reason for this order is to allow the special session of the Kansas Legislature to convene on June 3 and take up the matters that are currently unresolved including emergency management provisions and extension of statewide disaster declarations. If those matters are resolved with no further impact to local public health guidance, then the review of the current phase of reopening and the consideration of moving ahead will commence.
“It makes little sense to keep our county restricted unnecessarily yet we must remain deliberate and not just abandon all the precautions that have been working in Cowley County” Langer said in the news release. “The pandemic response plan that exists for our county provides for the activation of a working group that will consist of members of local government, emergency management, business and public health to consider changes moving forward.
“We will continue to rely upon the health science available to us from the State Health Department and the CDC, and we will incorporate our local public health conditions to make the best and most prudent decisions to protect our health as we expand our social and business interactions.”
Langer added that the hope is that the county can move a bit quicker toward full activity but not at the risk of community health and safety.
“We do not want a ‘wild west’ scenario in our county where everyone just does their own thing and that invites visitors from outside of our county that could cause a new spread of the virus,” he said. ““We will not quickly make changes locally only to have them undone next week. Hopefully we can proceed in Cowley County in a sound and reasonable manner.”
A copy of the executed Public Health Order can be read via the Health Department website for public review.
The order includes guidance to individuals and employers/businesses.
(Image courtesy covid.ks.gov)
