Phone calls and temperature checks: How Kansas Gov. Kelly is confronting the pandemic

As the coronavirus spreads across Kansas, Gov. Laura Kelly is managing the state’s response from a nearly-empty Statehouse.

Her office, usually buzzing with well over a dozen staff, is cleared out now except for Kelly, three aides and a security detail. Everyone else is working from home or at the state’s emergency operations center.

“I’m having to do a lot more via phone,” she said. “That’s never my preferred style of communication, but this just necessitates it.”

In an interview with The Kansas City Star and The Wichita Eagle, Kelly provided a window into her thinking as she confronts a crisis unlike any Kansas has faced in modern times.

The governor defended her decision to close schools for the rest of the academic year and chastised the federal government for not moving more quickly to prepare for the pandemic.

She also warned that the struggle against the virus won’t be over quickly, but gave few clues about what steps she will take next.

The Wednesday afternoon interview in her office underscored just how quickly life has been upended. An aide squirted sanitizer in my hand ahead of time. I sat six feet from Kelly at a long conference table. There was no handshake.

The Democratic governor, 70, hasn’t been tested — she has no symptoms. But she said she takes her temperature every day using an in-ear thermometer her husband purchased.

The interview came just as her office announced she had signed a stripped-down state budget to keep agencies operating if the Legislature is unable to reconvene this spring. In a statement, she urged lawmakers to show “fiscal restraint” when they return, saying “we’ve never experienced anything this sudden and severe in our lifetimes.”

‘Nothing worse than uncertainty’

The human and economic toll of the virus in Kansas is becoming clearer each day.

Reported cases are quickly rising and hospitalizations are expected to increase. In the span of a single week, 23,687 residents have filed for unemployment, roughly the population of Junction City.

Call centers at the Kansas Department of Labor had been “absolutely overwhelmed” with people looking for unemployment benefits, Kelly said.

The extraordinary times have spurred an extraordinary response. The first-term governor banned gatherings of more than 50, then lowered the limit to 10. She prohibited foreclosures and evictions of those who can’t make payments because of the virus. She’s lifted regulations on telemedicine and stopped utility cutoffs.

Most controversially, Kelly ordered schools closed for the academic year, a move that is forcing districts to shift instruction online and has caused massive disruption to the lives of thousands of students and parents.

She appears to have been the first governor in the nation to effectively shutter schools for the rest of school year.

“There is nothing worse than that uncertainty about what’s coming down the pike,” Kelly said. “I saw other states doing three weeks at a time, a month at a time and I thought ‘No. If we’re going to do this, let’s just do it and set up an alternative delivery system.’”

The decision inspired a backlash from some who argued Kelly had acted too aggressively by already foreclosing the possibility to returning to traditional classrooms later in the spring.

Former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who lost the 2018 governor’s race to Kelly, criticized the decision. In an email, he said Kelly should have closed schools for three weeks, then reassessed.

“The closure could be extended at that point if the data warranted it. She made a long-term decision without enough information,” said Kobach, who is now running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.

Kelly defended her decision as necessary to give clarity to parents and teachers. She said she felt “very comfortable” with the action.

“I know it was hard for people but it would have been hard if we had done it for three weeks and then they have to wonder whether we’re going to do it again,” she said.

Despite the criticism, Kelly’s response has earned the approval of the person Kobach hopes to replace: retiring Sen. Pat Roberts.

“I think Gov. Kelly is doing a good job,” Roberts said during a telephone town hall this week.

Mixed messages from Washington

Kansas, like most states, has struggled to secure adequate coronavirus testing and supplies, such as masks and gear for medical professionals. The state nearly ran out of tests over the weekend.

Kelly faulted the federal government, saying she’s not sure it was “as ready as they should have been.”

“They knew just because of what was going on in China that this was a possibility and it would have been extraordinarily helpful if they would have taken earlier preparatory steps,” Kelly said.

“I think the fact that they didn’t has created an equipment shortage” that includes masks, protective equipment for medical professionals, ventilators and tests for COVID-19, she added.

President Donald Trump this week has flirted with the idea that the United States could largely go back to business as normal by mid-April, a goal that public health experts have assailed as unrealistic and dangerous.

“That kind of mixed message on a federal level is not helpful whatsoever,” Kelly said. “But I believe that Kansans are paying attention to the message that we’re putting out.”

The number of reported cases is expected to rise quickly in the coming days, leading to a surge of patients that could strain hospitals. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment, which she oversees, has been exploring ways to expand hospital capacity across the state, including using Veterans Affairs hospitals.

“We’re working closely with our hospitals to ensure they have what they need and that they’re prepared for what could be coming,” Kelly said.

The Kansas Commerce Department has also launched several initiatives to aid businesses, including a $5 million loan fund for the hospitality industry that was quickly depleted. Kelly said her administration is looking at whatever else it can do to help, but didn’t provide details about may lie ahead.

“We’re in this for the long haul,” Kelly said. “We’re not expecting that this is something we’re going to be able to shut down next week.”

McClatchy DC’s Bryan Lowry contributed reporting

This story was originally published March 26, 2020 at 1:44 PM.