Update: On Sunday, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas answered questions about the stay-at-home order on Facebook Live. That story is posted here.
Kansas City and its surrounding counties will be subject to a stay-at-home order effective Tuesday morning in an effort to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, Mayor Quinton Lucas announced Saturday.
The order, which will go into effect 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, requires residents of Kansas City and Johnson, Jackson and Wyandotte counties to remain at home except for activities “essential to the health and safety” of themselves, family members or friends.
After 30 days, the jurisdictions will consider whether to extend the order.
Violations will be considered misdemeanor offenses, punishable by a $500 fine and up to 6 months in jail.
Lucas said the order was necessary to ramp back activity in the city so that the rate of infection can be controlled.
“We’re still seeing businesses ranging from gyms to massage parlors continuing to occur,” Lucas said. “My view is that it is essential for public health to make sure that we are getting the stay at home message across.”
The counties were expected to issue orders in their own jurisdictions.
Lucas said the order grew out of an ongoing conversation with county leaders. It became necessary, he said, because “we were not seeing as much compliance” with suggested social distancing as they would like. Part of that, he said, was due to a lack of understanding of what is appropriate.
The three counties and the city acting together, he said, sends a strong message. This step, he said, was essential to saving lives.
“Kansas City government has not been hesitant where we thought it was necessary in the benefit of public health even when our state has not,” Lucas said.
What’s allowed?
Trips to essential businesses such as grocery stores, pharmacies, hardware stores, doctors’ offices, dry cleaners, laundromats, banks, and restaurants will be permitted.
Essential businesses will also include hospitals, and organizations that provide food, shelter and social services to the homeless and impoverished.
Employees can report to work, as can those providing care for their children. They can only serve 10 children at a time, according to the order.
Parks will remain open and residents can go outside so long as they adhere to social distancing, which means staying six feet away from others, avoiding handshakes and covering coughs and sneezes.
Weddings, funerals and wakes cannot be held. Other “non-essential business and other non-essential operations must cease.”
The full order can be found here.
Lucas said that he does not anticipate any more stringent restrictions but that the situation is fluid.
Because only non-essential businesses would be closing, Lucas urged residents not to panic with extra trips to grocery stores and other destinations. However, he said, people should take the weekend to pick up things from their office, run small errands, and “wrap up any affairs” before the order takes effect.
“If folks have been following our directives already then this is not a substantial change,” Lucas said.
A joint press conference about the order will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Ongoing Conversation
Johnson County commissioners discussed the measure at a meeting Saturday afternoon.
“The numbers are exponentially increasing on both sides of the state line,” Chairman Ed Eilert said. “The tests are showing the virus continues to grow.”
Eilert said officials chose to keep the stay-at-home order in place for 30 days so that hospitals have enough time to collect and interpret data to determine if cases of the virus are leveling off or continuing to increase.
Assistant County Manager Joseph Connor said exemptions for “essential service” businesses aim to “keep the supply chain going.”
“Some of these businesses have already started to close. It’ll be more disruption in the community, but a lot of these things are already happening,” Connor said.
The commissioners also questioned how the order would be enforced, which officials said would be left up to law enforcement.
Rising case numbers
The order makes Kansas City the latest in a rapidly expanding list of states and localities that have placed life-as-usual on hold in an attempt to blunt the spread of the COVID-19 virus that has infected more than 24,000 Americans and killed more than 200. In St. Louis, officials issued a similar order for St. Louis County and St. Louis City Saturday.
The states of California, Illinois and New York have all ordered their residents to stay home.
It comes as the area continues to see rising numbers of cases despite measures taken to prevent large gatherings, limit restaurants to takeout service only and encourage residents to practice social distancing to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Kansas has reported at least 55 presumed cases of the virus since it began spreading, Missouri had confirmed 73 by the end of the day Friday.
Twelve of the Missouri cases were reported in Kansas City, five were reported in Jackson County.
Kansas has seen two coronavirus-related deaths, one in Johnson County and one in Wyandotte County. Combined, the two counties’ 39 presumed cases total more than cases everywhere else in the state.
The Star’s Sarah Ritter contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 21, 2020 4:30 PM.
