KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Earlier this week, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson announced the state will end all COVID-19 restrictions as of June 15.
Kansas City, Missouri's top doc says the virus is greater now than it was before.
Public Health Director Dr. Rex Archer told 41 Action News Friday the city is already experiencing its second wave of the virus.
Archer said people got “social distancing fatigue,” which contributed to the city’s second wave.
“We’re up to 1,525 total cases that we know of, and there’s probably 5-10 times that out there that we don’t know of because so many people can have this disease and not realize it,” Archer said.
Thursday, Governor Parson said the state is ready to take the next step forward. The decision was made after Parson said Missouri met its four pillars on testing capacity, PPE supply chains, hospital capacity and the states COVID-19 database.
“At some point government has to get out of the way and let people live their lives and regulate their own selves, and we are at that time in the state of Missouri, and I know, I know, Missourians will continue to do the right thing,” Parson said in announcing the relaxing of restrictions.
Parson’s order does not mean that all restrictions will be lifted. City or county health departments can call for their own.
In Johnson County, Kansas, social distancing and mask wearing is encouraged, but not enforced.
“The things that we are doing now, we probably won’t see the effects, for a couple of weeks,” Dr. Sanmi Areola, Johnson County Department of Health and Environment, said.
A second wave of COVID-19 means there’s more widespread transmission of the virus.
Areola told 41 Action News that Johnson County is not there yet.
“The risk is here, the virus is here,” Areola said.
While Johnson County hired more employees to do contact tracing, Kansas City is in need.
“We’re trying to add 97 positions, which is what we need to be able to handle these types of outbreaks," Archer said. "I’ve got 300 positive cases that we haven’t had staff to be able to hand off that investigation."
He said he’s hopeful that people everywhere will continue to wear their masks and practice social distancing.
