Kansas City Council approves extension of mask mandate for schools through year’s end
The Kansas City Council voted Thursday to extend the mask mandate for those in schools through the end of the year.
The previous mandate, a citywide directive requiring masks in all indoor public spaces, expired last month. The extended ordinance is set to expire on Jan. 1 at 3 p.m.
It applies to those in school buildings and school buses.
“This is just to help our school districts, our school buildings and facilities get through the last several weeks of this semester with the mask rule as recommended from our health department,” Mayor Quinton Lucas said during Thursday’s meeting.
It was approved by a 9-1 vote with Councilman Brandon Ellington, District 3 at-large, voting no.
Children under 5 are exempt from the mandate. There are also some medical exemptions, as well as one for communicating with someone who is deaf or hard of hearing. Those who are alone in a separate room or bus do not have to wear masks.
In a letter to council members and the city manager, interim health director Frank Thompson said he strongly supported continuing the mask requirement in schools for at least another 30 days.
“Such an order is needed to provide relief to local hospitals, to continue efforts to ‘turn the curve’ of Kansas City’s latest COVID-19 surge, and to protect the public health of Kansas Citians,” Thompson wrote.
Cases among those under age 18 are still higher than the rest of the population, according to the health department.
The update comes as health experts are concerned about the spread of the omicron variant of the virus that causes COVID-19.
“I would say it’s probably a small chance that it’s [already] here in the Kansas City area,” Dr. Dana Hawkinson, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Kansas Health System, told The Star. “But if it’s not, I would suspect that within the next week or two that yes, we will probably ... have evidence of it in the Kansas City area.”
The delta variant is still the main concern of Kansas City hospitals.
Thompson wrote that the Centers for Disease Control has reiterated the need for people to continue wearing masks in high transmission areas, including Kansas City, until there is more information available about the omicron variant.
Last week, a Missouri judge ruled that the state health department violated the state constitution by allowing local public health agencies — rather than local elected officials — to issue orders to control the spread of disease. A new state law requiring governing bodies to approve local public health rules already limited many of the rules that the judge struck down.
The ruling has not impacted Kansas City’s health orders, as those are implemented by the City Council with guidance from the Kansas City Health Department.
