KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, revealed its economic recovery plan Thursday during a special session.
The Restart WyCo: Road to Recovery includes an extension of the countywide stay-at-home order through May 10, which is one week longer than the statewide order.
MORE: Full Restart WyCo: Road to Recovery
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly announced Thursday night that she would allow the statewide order to expire after Sunday, allowing select businesses in locations without an ongoing county stay-at-home order to reopen.
Under the Unified Government's four-phase plan, people should continue to stay at home except for essential activities, such as grocery shopping and exercising outdoors and throughout the reopening process people are asked to maintain social distancing efforts and continue to wear masks while in public.
The plan moves from the Red Zone, to the Yellow Zone to the Green Zone after the stay-at-home order is lifted and includes recommendations for residents and requirements for businesses.
The 46-page plan is broken down with separate guidelines for different business sectors and groups within the community:
- General population
- Vulnerable populations
- Essential businesses
- Nursing home and long-term care facilities
- Retail stores
- Elective medical procedure and dental offices
- Non-medical offices
- Manufacturing and logistics companies
- Restraurants and bars
- Child care businesses
- Schools
- Salons and barber shops
- Real estate workers
- Churches and other places of worship
- Construction companies
- Entertainment venues, community centers and museums
- Mass sporting events
- Parks, golf courses and other outdoor spaces
The guidelines are color-coded and indicate when certain businesses can return and what restrictions for personal protective equipment, social distancing and occupancy are in place at the different levels.
Assuming the stay-at-home order is lifted after May 10, Wyandotte County will be in the Red Zone.
County officials will continue to monitor hospitalization, positive test and death rates for at least two weeks before determining whether to move to a different zone, so the quickest the county could go from the Red Zone to the Yellow Zone and then to the Green Zone would be four weeks.
Rapid diagnostic testing capacity, health-care capacity and contact-tracing capacity also will factor in the Unified Government's decision.
Wyandotte County's health department reported that the county has four times the number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people compared with surrounding Kansas City area counties and the rest of Kansas.
That includes nearly 700 positive cases and 55 known deaths attributable to COVID-19, which is the most for any Kansas county and among the immediate seven-county KC area.
Businesses deemed non-essential won't be able to welcome back customers inside stores and restaurants can't resume dine-in service until at least the Yellow Zone, when operations can resume at reduced capacity.
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