On Thursday, lots of anxious Kansas business leaders and lawmakers were waiting to learn the details of Governor Laura Kelly’s plan to reopen the state’s battered economy, which has been ravaged by the reaction to the coronavirus. While Kelly said she will declare a new state of emergency, effective through May 14th because the existing one was set to expire today, and the new order will be mainly a re-issue of all her old executive orders, the stay at home order, scheduled to expire at midnight on Sunday, was more of a focus. Kelly said a phased-in plan which will continue to maintain limits for mass gatherings, will allow individual counties to choose to adopt more restrictive guidelines if they think they need to. House Speaker, Republican Ron Ryckman, said legislative leaders have been told nothing of the new plans, therefore they have not had any chance to add input, but they hope that they are successful. The Kansas Chamber of Commerce said the business community is ready, and nonessential businesses should reopen if they are able to take actions such as increasing the cleaning of common areas and providing sick employees with flexible time off. Kelly is taking some heat because Kansas has had one of the lowest COVID-19 testing rates in the country. The state’s top health officials say now hospitalizations have been falling and that an increase in positive tests is largely the result of more testing. The actual number of COVID-19 infections is thought to be far higher than the number of those confirmed because many people have not been tested and studies suggest people can be infected without feeling sick.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms. Some never experience any symptoms. But for some older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, or death.
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