'We are in trouble': Kansas City hospital leaders to call for new mask mandates

Kansas City-area hospital leaders are expected to call for new mask mandates, one top hospital official said Thursday, as the region grapples with an influx of COVID-19 patients that’s nearing a crisis point.

Steve Stites, chief medical officer at the University of Kansas Health System, used blunt language to describe the problems confronting hospitals across the metro, which boil down to too many patients and too few beds.

“We are past the tipping point. We are in trouble,” Stites said.

He described a Thursday morning call between area chief medical officers in which the hospital leaders were in agreement about mandates.

“I think you are going to find the chief medical officers are going to call for a reinstitution of the mask mandates and social distancing because we had that discussion this morning and we were all in favor of it because we’re in trouble in the hospitals,” Stites said during KU’s morning briefing.

Read more: https://www.kansascity.com/news/coronavirus/article252958273.html