KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The reinstated indoor mask mandate in Kansas City, Missouri, begins on Monday.
It starts at 12:01 a.m. and will last until at least Aug. 28.
KCMO Mayor Quinton Lucas stated that the guidance issued by the CDC is the reason behind his decision with the mandate.
39.2% of people that live in KCMO are fully vaccinated.
"Now everybody who was questioning vaccines and how we can actually get vaccines down, officials now say we love vaccines and that's the only solution," Lucas said. "I don't find that to be the case. I think that you can have multiple safeguards to make sure places are safe. I think that Kansas City's mask order is something that was actually fairly easy to comply with there."
Anyone five years or older are required to wear a mask indoors, no matter their vaccination status under the mandate.
According to the KCMO Health Department, there were 883 new COVID-19 cases last week (as of July 24th).
"Until everyone either is vaccinated or has the infection and develops immune response, what will happen is we'll see repeated surges of the virus. As time passes the virus mutates, becomes more contagious, more aggressive so the next surge we have will be worse than this one," Dr. David McKinsey, Metro Infectious Disease Consultants said.
Lucas said this mandate applies to places of public accommodation like grocery stores and other public places.
