By Jonathan Shorman and Sarah Ritter
Tribune News Service
LAWRENCE — Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has spoken with Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s office and mayors in the Kansas City metro area about a strategy to relax stay-at-home restrictions in the region as Republicans pressure Kelly to outline plans for reopening the economy.
The calls from Kelly to state and local leaders, placed Tuesday, raise the possibility of a coordinated approach across states in lifting directives that have shuttered businesses and kept residents in their homes.
Kelly is collaborating with Parson and mayors to “reduce confusion and help keep our community safe on both sides of the state line,” she said during her daily briefing Wednesday afternoon.
She is also expected to speak with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. The leaders “will be working together to form a strategy for reopening in our region and in our individual states,” Kelly told the public radio show 1A on Wednesday.
Kelly announced she is extending Kansas’ statewide stay-at-home order until May 3. It would have expired Sunday. She said officials want to see two weeks of reduced case numbers before beginning to relax restrictions.
She said the state needs to approach lifting restrictions slowly and cautiously. Some steps to limit the spread of the virus may be necessary until a vaccine is developed, she said.
“If we do rush it, we will end up doing more harm,” Kelly said.
At his daily briefing Wednesday, Parson did not join Kelly in extending Missouri’s stay-at-home order, which is set to expire April 24. But he implied that the order will last at least another two weeks, a period when models show COVID-19 could peak in Missouri.
“The next two weeks will decide what decisions we make for the future of this state,” he said, later adding: “It’s critically important that we abide by this order for the next couple weeks. I can’t stress that enough.”
He said he will have more information about his order at his briefing Thursday.
COVID-19 has infected at least 1,426 people and more than 70 have died in Kansas. In Missouri, 4,895 cases have been confirmed with 147 deaths.
The economies of both states have been devastated as people stay home to limit spread of the virus. More than 100,000 in Kansas are now without work.
Republicans want Kelly to set metrics and standards that will determine when restrictions are lifted. On Tuesday, 43 House Republicans, including House Majority Leader Hawkins, signed a letter to Kelly urging her to develop a plan to reopen businesses.
“This weekend we learned that President Trump is convening a national task force to work on how to reopen our economy from a national perspective. In Texas, Governor Abbott has already released plans for how business across his state can begin to re-open,” the Republicans’ letter says. “There is no excuse for the state of Kansas to not be doing the same.”
Trump has falsely asserted he has “total authority” over reopening state economies. In fact, those decisions are up to individual governors — including Kelly — who have exercised a wide array of emergency powers during the crisis.
The president later backed off of that position. Governors of both parties have begun speaking more openly in recent days about how their states will determine when to lift restrictions.
Governors in half a dozen northeastern states, including New York and Pennsylvania, have formed a coalition to plan together. Governors of West Coast states are developing their own plan.
“For all the time that we’ve been spending actually dealing with the health issues related to this virus, we’ve been very well aware that at some point we need to reopen our economy,” Kelly told reporters, adding “we’ve understood that from the get-go.”
She suggested a regional approach is possible for Kansas and surrounding states, too.
In her interview with 1A, she described “setting a strategy so that we coordinate our efforts to reopen our businesses, our schools and everything else.”
Parson said he’s spoken with Kelly regularly during the COVID-19 outbreak on multiple fronts.
“Kansas City sits right on the border with Missouri and Kansas, so it’s important for us to talk about how we move forward on that issue,” he said.
Kelly said she hasn’t reached out to the governors of Nebraska and Oklahoma, saying they’re “really sort of dealing with this in a different way” than Colorado, Missouri and Kansas.
“We’re trying to bring together the governors who are sort of on the same page about this,” Kelly said, adding she would work with them if they’re interested.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has attempted to ban elective medical treatment, including abortion, during the crisis. Kelly has ruled that out, despite calls from Republicans to impose a temporary halt.
The Kansas Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday released its own plan to restart the economy. The chamber says Kansas should explore a program to certify people to return to work.
“One possibility is to allow employers and employees to be tested for COVID-19 antibodies,” the plan says. “If a person tests positive for the antibody and is not in the middle of an ongoing infection, the person is possibly immune and thus could return to work safely.”
In Johnson County, health officials cautioned they need more test results and data before making a decision on reopening the economy. The county has funded its own $400,000 program to expand community testing to better understand the outbreak, but the program is still in the early stages.
“While we can expect and have cautious optimism here, I remain unconvinced that we’re ready to make a decision yet to lift the stay-at-home orders,” Joseph LeMaster, county public health officer, said earlier this week.
But he added that the time is coming for the county to form an exit strategy.
Sanmi Areola, public health director, said the region might consider slowly rolling back some of the restrictions under the stay at home order, although he does not expect gatherings, concerts or events to be permitted.
“I’m asking you to be sure that you’re actually flattening the curve. To be sure of that you need more than one data point,” Areola told the Johnson County Board of Commissioners. “It only takes a couple of things to change before the flat curve spikes up.”
But some Johnson County commissioners expressed frustration with the approach, pushing for a plan for lifting restrictions to be developed as soon as possible.
“Simply telling people it’s for your own good — to go home and sit down, and we’ll tell you when you can come out, is not resonating well,” Commissioner Mike Brown said. “I am hearing from people and they’re growing incredibly restless right now.”
Commissioner Michael Aschraft agreed that “the COVID-19 fatigue is building.”
Kelly has faced increasing pressure from Republicans since last week, when she issued an executive order limiting religious gatherings to no more than 10 people. That set off a fight with Republican leaders, who voted to revoke the order during a meeting of the Legislative Coordinating Council, or LCC, a body made up of top lawmakers from both parties.
The Kansas Supreme Court overturned the vote in a Saturday night decision, ruling they hadn’t followed proper procedures laid out in a resolution approved by the Legislature in March.
Under the decision, the LCC may revoke an order, but only after the State Finance Council has already voted to extend Kelly’s emergency powers.
The State Finance Council met via conference call Wednesday — its first gathering during the pandemic. It voted to approve $17 million in emergency aid for hospitals and $10 million of disaster relief funding for the Kansas Adjutant General’s Department.
Hawkins, of Wichita, noted the relief for hospitals only helps one sector of the economy.
“We can’t help out the whole economy. I’m not saying we can,” Hawkins said during the meeting. “But the one thing we can do is to get people back to work, get people back to making money, being able to pay their bills.”
House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita, said in a statement he’s confident Kelly will work with legislative leaders to develop a “solid plan” to reopen the state.
“It’s clear from her stay-at-home extension that it’s not yet safe to do so,” Sawyer said.
Kelly’s emergency powers will expire May 1 unless the State Finance Council approves an extension or the Legislature itself authorizes additional time.
Lawmakers are currently scheduled to return to Topeka on April 27, but legislative leaders could push back that date.
A survey of 1,271 Kansas voters conducted earlier this week by Public Policy Polling found broad support for Kelly’s order. Only 14 percent of voters said allowing larger church services to continue was more important than upholding her ban on mass gatherings of more than 10; 76 percent said upholding the ban was more important and 10 percent weren’t sure. The poll had a margin of error of 2.8 percent.