Gov. Laura Kelly dismisses rumor of plans for COVID-19 lockdown on Kansas businesses

TOPEKA — Gov. Laura Kelly voted with House and Senate legislative leaders Friday to extend the statewide disaster declaration applicable to COVID-19 and the Democratic governor renounced speculation raised by a GOP legislator there could be a plan to close businesses in a gambit to blunt the virus’ advance.

Renewal of the disaster declaration was a formality necessitated by the Legislature’s decision to limit the governor to 30-day extensions. This was the third such extension so far in 2020, and would sustain the declaration from Monday through Dec. 15. Kansas is experiencing exponential growth of COVID-19 in some areas of the state, and rural and urban hospitals are reaching basic patient capacity.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported a record-high surge in known coronavirus cases Friday, with an increase of 6,282 cases since Wednesday for a 2020 total of 115,507. In the past three weeks, Kansas has documented an increase of 36,000 cases. Since Wednesday, KDHE documented 41 more deaths for a total of 1,256 and added 75 hospitalizations to move that total to 4,327.

House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican who has tangled with the governor on pandemic leadership issues, said he had been contacted by Kansans anxious that rapid escalation in COVID-19 infection would precipitate a stay-at-home order or nonessential business lockdown. He said some Kansans didn’t grasp the distinction between the umbrella function of a disaster declaration and the series of specific executive orders issued by the governor during the pandemic.

Read more: https://kansasreflector.com/2020/11/13/gov-laura-kelly-dismisses-rumor-of-plans-for-covid-19-lockdown-on-kansas-businesses/