Quarantine lifted, but Wichita council members staying in anyway
Four Wichita City Council members are choosing to remain in self-quarantine even after health officials said they could go about their business and watch for symptoms.
The four, Mayor Brandon Whipple and council members Becky Tuttle, James Clendenin and Brandon Johnson, may have been exposed to coronavirus at a conference in Washington, D.C. last week.
“Today, the Disease Investigator’s office at the Sedgwick County Health Department determined that the council members need no longer self-quarantine,” said a statement released by City Hall Thursday.
“They are advised to self-monitor for two weeks until March 23 to check for symptoms such as fevers greater than 100.4 F and respiratory symptoms. If they develop symptoms they must stay home and contact their PCP (professional care provider).”
Despite the release, all four said Thursday they are continuing to self-quarantine.
“I feel like it’s best for the community, just in case,” Tuttle said. “My husband and I have food, we have supplies, we have access to health care if we need it. And I know many don’t.
“My heart aches for this great city and I hope we’ll just continue to rally together to take care of everyone. And I feel if there’s one small thing I can do in the middle of it, it’s just make sure that I’m not making anyone sick.”
Whipple said Thursday he was watching a Harvard/Johns Hopkins seminar online analyzing why some countries have been harder-hit by the virus than others.
His takeaway was that countries where epidemics are more common have been more successful in controlling the spread of the coronavirus, because people there understand the importance of social distancing — avoiding close contact with others to avoid passing diseases around.
He said he’d be sharing the conclusions from the seminar with the public through the city’s social media channels.
City Hall is testing systems so that the missing members can participate in Tuesday’s council meeting by video conferencing or calling in, Whipple said.
That will be easier next week because it’s the fourth meeting of the month. Ordinarily, it’s reserved for staff reports and discussion of upcoming issues.
Tuesday’s meeting was originally scheduled as a joint session with the Sedgwick County Commission for a presentation of the Riverfront Legacy Master Plan, a blueprint for $1.2 billion worth of convention and performing arts facilities and businesses to be redeveloped at the current site of the Century II center.
However, that presentation has been postponed because of the health emergency and an order limiting public meetings to 50 people at a time.
The only pressing business remaining Tuesday is approval of the “consent agenda,” a list of routine and noncontroversial items approved en masse in a single vote.
The council members may have encountered the coronvirus, COVID-19, at a National League of Cities meeting March 8-11.
The NLC announced Tuesday that two people who were active participants at the conference have since tested positive for the virus.
Following health privacy laws, the NLC couldn’t release the names of those individuals, so the Wichita council members have no way of knowing whether they came in contact with them.
Council members Cindy Claycomb, Bryan Frye and City Manager Robert Layton were also in Washington at the same time as the conference, but didn’t attend it.
Council member Jeff Blubaugh didn’t go on the annual trip for the conference and meetings with members of Congress.
This story was originally published March 19, 2020 at 3:14 PM.
