Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas announced Thursday morning that the city is under a state of emergency for at least 21 days.
“Protecting all of our residents remains our top priority, which means that how we interact over the weeks and months ahead will need to change dramatically as we confront our current public health challenge,” said Lucas.
The novel coronavirus or COVID-19 reached the frontlines of the Kansas City area last Saturday when a Johnson County woman tested positive for the virus.
The metro area has since experienced its first death related to COVID-19. A Wyandotte County man in his 70s died Wednesday, testing positive for the virus post-mortem.
Since the city’s announcement of a state of emergency, all events with over 1,000 people in Kansas City are canceled.
The University of Missouri System announced Friday that it has suspended in-person classes for the rest of the spring 2020 semester. All classes will be taught remotely.
UMKC Chancellor Mauli Agrawal stated in a news release the school is working to make the transition as seamless as possible
“Our goal remains to ensure that we continue our teaching and research even as we put in safeguards to protect our faculty, staff, students and visitors,” said Agrawal. “That said, this ever-changing situation will require ongoing planning and vigilance in coming weeks.”
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly announced a state of emergency after she confirmed Kansas’ first coronavirus death. Governor Mike Parson declared a state of emergency for Missouri this Friday. Both declarations will allow additional state resources and personnel to help with the response to the virus.
President Donald Trump declared a national emergency yesterday, giving access to additional funding. He said $50 billion will be dedicated to fighting the spread of the novel coronavirus.
As of today, there have been eight confirmed cases and one death in Kansas. In Missouri, there have been four confirmed cases, all outside of the Kansas City area.
Andrea M Bojorquez • Mar 21, 2020 at 3:56 am
My 2 children and I were really sick a little over a month ago with;fevers,weakness,coughs,muscle aches and we went to the ER once the fevers had gone away. The hospital didn’t even want to check us for the flu, instead they prescribed inhalers and sent us home. We still have a mild cough but no other symptoms and sometimes throughout the day we feel shortness of breath. I wish they would have at least checked to see if it was the regular flu or not. If it would have come back negative there may have been her test available to determine what we had. We all felt so much worse than a cold or flu.
Dasia Graves • Mar 16, 2020 at 5:29 pm
I hate the virus and I’m really looking forward to postive changes because I’m going to be a young adult pretty soon
Todd Cannon • Mar 16, 2020 at 11:55 am
Why doesn’t Mayor Lucas shut down Westport?
Brittni Spears • Mar 15, 2020 at 3:42 pm
We are not testing enough. That’s the only reason we don’t have many here and ALL schools should be shut instead of where they “think” it’s circulating. Aggressive actions are the absolute only way to help mitigate this.
GuyinWaldo • Mar 15, 2020 at 1:11 pm
What an absolute joke. If you think there’s really only 5 cases of COVID-19 in Missouri, I’ve got a bridge to sell you. The Federal response has been a disaster. This administration could have had access to tests provided by the WHO months ago. Look it up! Instead, they chose to forgo additional tests because they feared that more confirmed cases would look bad. Well, guess what folks? It’s here and spreading faster than yoga pants in a gentrified neighborhood. Making matters worse, Governor Parsons won’t close the schools because he doesn’t want to take the heat for complicating the lives of families. Voters should remove him next November for dereliction of duty if nothing else. People should stay at home if they’re sick, but they won’t because their employers aren’t going to pay them if they do so this is probably going to ravage our country and a lot of people are going to pay the price for our selfishness. If this is what “Keeping America Great” looks like, count me out. What a sick joke and utter disgrace.
Wayne • Mar 15, 2020 at 5:25 am
Was there any people last week at the airport of Kansas airport found to have any symptoms of the virus