Latest news as COVID surges in Kansas City region: school rules, masks and vaccines

Communities around the Kansas City region continue to see a rise in coronavirus cases because of the spread of the delta variant and low vaccination rates. Here’s the latest on how governments and schools are responding:

Missouri starts vaccine incentive program with cash and prizes

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Wednesday announced drawings with $10,000 prizes to encourage residents to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The announcement came as a COVID surge continues relentlessly across the state. Missouri on Wednesday reported 2,229 confirmed new cases, the highest since mid-January.

In total, 900 residents will win prizes of either $10,000 cash or $10,000 toward education savings. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services will partner with the Missouri Lottery in the effort.

The incentive effort centers on five drawings that will begin Aug. 13. Three categories of individuals will be eligible: adults who have received at least one dose of vaccine before July 21, adults who have received at least one dose after July 21, and those under 18.

In each drawing, 180 people will win prizes: 80 adults at least partially-vaccinated by July 21, 80 adults vaccinated after July 21, and 20 residents 12 to 17 who are at least partially vaccinated.

MO Gov. Parson announces new director of state health agency

Gov. Mike Parson on Wednesday tapped Donald G. Kauerauf to lead the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services as it responds to a surge in COVID-19 across the state.

Kauerauf, who will take over the agency Sept. 1, is a past assistant director of the Illinois Department of Public Health. He will be tasked with transforming the DHSS and leading it past the controversial tenure of its last leader, Randall Williams, who resigned abruptly at Parson’s request earlier this year.

During the pandemic, Kauerauf chaired the Illinois Terrorism Task Force after retiring from the Illinois Department of Public Health in 2018. He holds a bachelor’s degree in occupational safety and health from Illinois State University.

He takes over for Robert Knodell, Parson’s deputy chief of staff and an influential figure in the state’s vaccine rollout, who has been acting director. Knodell also does not have a medical background.

Kansas City hospitals are turning away patients due to COVID surge

Like other hospitals in the Kansas City region, the University of Kansas Health System is turning down transfer patients because its beds are full, setting up a potential crisis, its chief medical officer said Wednesday.

“I think we’re at a tipping point,” Steve Stites said during KU’s daily briefing. “If we don’t take it seriously, we could easily end up back where we were in November.”

The hospital is “running full steam,” like others in the metro, because of an increase in COVID-19 patients and others returning to the hospital who may have stayed away at the height of the pandemic. Last fall, Stites said, the hospital had beds available.

KU has been turning down between one and six acute patients each day. If they had not been doing so, staff would be treating about 100 such patients, Stites said. Increasing COVID-19 infections could exacerbate the problem.

“We are turning down transfers, which is creating, I think, a real concern, maybe even a crisis here in our region because patients are having trouble landing into beds anywhere near their hometown,” Stites said.

Vaccine incentives coming to Missouri

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson will announce a statewide COVID-19 vaccination incentive program Wednesday as cases and hospitalizations soar in areas of the state.

The announcement comes after weeks of the Republican governor weighing incentives. Parson was initially reluctant but his stance has softened over time.

Details of the incentive plan weren’t immediately available. The governor’s office said Parson plans to hold a news conference Wednesday where he would “announce a statewide vaccine incentive program” and name a new leader for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services after its past head resigned earlier this year.

Missouri hits a new peak in COVID-19 Delta variant cases

The summer surge of infection tied to the easily spread delta variant of COVID-19 is accelerating in Missouri, with state health officials on Wednesday reporting the highest case total since mid-January.

The Department of Health and Senior Services reported 2,995 additional cases, with at least one case in 105 of the state’s 117 local health jurisdictions. The seven-day average of reported cases rose to 2,144 per day, up one-third in seven days and more than triple the average of June 21.

Missouri last reported more than 3,000 additional cases on Jan. 15. The seven-day average is the highest since Jan. 27, when cases were falling steadily from their peak in November.

So far this month, the state health department has reported 33,656 additional cases, 75 percent more than the full month of June. In November, the state recorded more than 126,000 cases.

The worst report since the Delta variant was first identified in early May via wastewater monitoring comes as Gov. Mike Parson is set to announce a new state health director, an incentive plan to boost vaccination rates and as Chicago is urging anyone visiting Missouri to quarantine upon their return if they are not vaccinated.

The hardest-hit areas of the state continue to be in southwest Missouri. Of the 18 local health departments with month-to-date infection rates for reported cases above 1,000 per 100,000 residents, 17 are in the region that runs from Jefferson City to Joplin.

This story was produced by the Missouri Independent, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization covering state government, politics and policy.

Springfield hospital to open third COVID ICU unit, urges public to get vaccinated

Mercy Hospital in Springfield is planning to open a third COVID-19 ICU unit, its chief administrative officer said Wednesday, as the highly contagious delta variant is rampaging through the unvaccinated in southwestern Missouri.

Erik Frederick disclosed the development in a Twitter post, noting that the hospital’s staff is now treating 146 virus patients, up from 132 by this time last week and 120 the week before.

“We do not want to prepare a bed for you,” Frederick wrote. “We need the community vaccinated. Mask until we get there.”

More than half of the hospital’s COVID-19 patients are now from Greene County and under the age of 60, Frederick said.

Less than two weeks ago, the hospital said it was opening a sixth COVID-19 unit. It only needed five such units last year. Those units are separate from the ICU units dedicated to COVID patients.

Frederick’s tweet comes as the hospital has been slammed by a surge of virus infections. Earlier this month, the hospitalran out of ventilators, so Mercy hospitals in St. Louis and Arkansas sent their supplies.

Also on Wednesday Steve Edwards, the CEO of CoxHealth in Springfield, posted on Twitter to share the story of an Alabama doctor.

Most Johnson County schools will not mandate masks

Almost all of Johnson County’s school districts have decided not to mandate masks when classes begin next month.

This week, the Blue Valley district decided masks will be optional for everyone, but strongly encouraged them for students and staff who are not fully vaccinated. Officials in the Olathe, De Soto and Gardner-Edgerton districts have previously said the same.

The last Johnson County district to decide, Shawnee Mission, is expected to announce its COVID-19 protocols at a school board meeting Monday, spokesman David Smith said.

Meanwhile in Wyandotte County, the Kansas City, Kansas, school district announced Tuesday night that masks would be required for all students and staff.

Last week, Johnson County health officials issued guidance recommending that children who have not been fully vaccinated wear masks for the start of school. That advice comes as the highly contagious delta variant has become the dominant strain in Johnson County, officials have said, and as COVID-19 cases continue to rise.

Petition urges KU to require COVID vaccine

A University of Kansas student has created a petition urging KU to require students and faculty to get the COVID-19 vaccine before they return to campus in August.

If not a vaccine requirement, the petition created by Sophie Kunin calls for a mask mandate or the option to take classes online.

“Currently, hundreds of public universities and private colleges in the United States are requiring Covid-19 vaccinations before the fall semester; yet, KU has remained silent,” according to the petition, which had been signed more than 450 times by Wednesday.

The university did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment about the petition. But in May, Chancellor Douglas Girod and Provost Barbara Bichelmeyer said KU was strongly encouraging people to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

“In the meantime, KU will continue to do everything possible to encourage vaccination and make it as convenient as possible for Jayhawks to get vaccinated,” they said at the time. “This will include student-specific efforts as we approach the fall semester.”