Sedgwick County health officer urges use of masks, ban on large sports tournaments
With the Wichita area’s COVID-19 rate on the rise, Sedgwick County’s top medical official is recommending a partial travel ban, limits on restaurant occupancy and more widespread use of protective face masks.
The county health officer, Dr. Garold Minns told commissioners he didn’t have current exact numbers on hospitalizations for COVID, but has spoken with hospital officials in the county and it’s not looking good.
One told him: “Our numbers are up significantly and I am concerned ... we can still handle where we’re at, but I don’t like the trajectory of that curve,” Minns said.
Minns suggested three changes to the county’s current policy:
▪ A ban on large sports tournaments and similar activities that draw participants from states with high COVID-19 rates, such as Texas, Colorado and Arizona.
▪ Limiting restaurant occupancy to half of the building’s rated capacity under the fire code.
▪ Widespread use of masks and face coverings, which have been proven at least partially effective in preventing spread of the virus.
Minns said regardless of whether Gov. Laura Kelly’s mandatory mask order — announced Monday and scheduled to take effect Friday — stands or falls, public cooperation will be needed for masks to be effective.
“How can we all work together to convince the public to do this, because it’s the right thing to do?” he asked the commissioners.
He said the sports tournaments are particularly dangerous.
“Those people are coming from all over the United States,” he said. “As you know, many states are hot spots now. We have no way of screening those people. I think for the time being it would be best if we just suspended all of those type of visits here.”
Minns got some pushback from commissioners and clarified that he was specifically talking about multi-state tournaments, not those limited to Kansas participants.
Commission Chairman Pete Meitzner defended last weekend’s Mid America Youth Basketball tournament that drew thousands of players, coaches, parents and siblings to games in Wichita and environs, many from out of state.
“The MAYB tournament last weekend got a lot of criticism,” Meitzner said. “There was a lot of false information.”
He said the event was spread across 14 venues in Sedgwick, Butler and Reno counties and that the maximum size of any grouping in the gyms was 150 to 200 people at once.
“The rumor was there were thousands of people gathered,” he said. “I just thought it was a little unfair that our kids got penalized for, I mean verbally criticized for something, an event. So I’m glad you’re clarifying that your recommendation is out-of-state participants.”
While acknowledging case numbers are better in Sedgwick County than some others, Minns said his goal is to prevent as many coronavirus deaths as possible.
“I would say I don’t want to catch up with Wyandotte County, I want Wyandotte County to catch up with us,” Minns said.
Currently, Sedgwick County has no coronavirus restrictions in place. And under state law, the county commissioners have the authority to override both Kelly’s mask order and recommendations from the county health officer.
Commissioners made no decisions during Tuesday’s staff meeting.
This story was originally published June 30, 2020 at 10:29 AM.
