Sedgwick County health officer to order bars to close and limit gatherings to 15
Sedgwick County’s health officer said he plans to issue an order shutting down bars again and taking other steps to control a recent spike in COVID-19 infections.
In a report at Tuesday’s county staff meeting, Dr. Garold Minns told county commissioners the order will include some of the restrictions in place during the stay-at-home order that was lifted in May and some new ideas.
The order will include:
▪ Restaurants that serve alcohol will be required to close at 10 p.m.
▪ All fairs, parades and festivals will be canceled.
▪ Public gatherings will be limited to 15 people or less.
▪ Venues seating 2,000 people will be closed.
▪ Businesses will be required to maintain 6 feet of distance between individuals or family groupings.
▪ A mandate that people wear masks in most public settings will remain in force.
“I’d like this order to be written and signed this afternoon,” Minns said Tuesday morning. He said he plans to work with county legal staff to draft the order.
He proposed that the order last at least until Sept. 9 with further review in early September.
Minns, also the dean of the University of Kansas Medical School in Wichita, said it’s necessary to return to stronger measures to control COVID-19 spread.
Since statewide stay-at-home and mass gathering orders were lifted, coronavirus has taken off worse than it did in the first round, he said.
“Our hospital numbers . . . are at their high-water mark,” Minns said. “We have more patients in the hospital today (for COVID-19) than we’ve ever had. We have more employees at our hospitals who are sick and at home with COVID now than we’ve ever had.”
Doctors were optimistic in May that, like seasonal flu, COVID-19 infection rates would naturally drop off in the heat of the summer. Actually, the opposite happened, he said.
“What we have learned is this virus loves hot weather,” Minns said. “Our numbers have gone up 10-fold in six weeks.”
Also, the recent infection trend has busted a belief that COVID is primarily a disease of the elderly, Minns said.
Now, eight out of 10 coronavirus patients in Sedgwick County are under 60 and 55% are under 40, Minns said.
And while younger people are better able to survive the virus, some develop serious, long-lasting and debilitating health problems including blood clotting and strokes.
Minns’ order could be revised or overturned by the County Commission at its Wednesday morning meeting.
County commissioners react
Commissioner Jim Howell, who has been opposed to mandatory orders throughout the COVID pandemic, said after the meeting he doesn’t think there’s support on the commission to undo Minns’ order. But he does expect it to be discussed and there could be some tweaks.
He said a business-by-business approach could be more fruitful than a “broad brush” solution.
“There’s one bar that reached out to me and said they’re doing everything just like a restaurant would, but yet they’re lumped in with other bars,” Howell said. “It’s almost like we’re picking winners and losers and that’s a challenge for some of these businesses and it seems very unfair to them.”
Commissioner Lacey Cruse said the order is necessary to avoid problems like McConnell Air Force Base is having with COVID cases among airmen who appear to have caught the coronavirus by going to bars when off duty.
“I do worry, though, about our gig economy, I worry about our musicians, I worry about those who are not able to pay their bills because they can’t be in this type of environment,” said Cruse. “I worry about our bartenders, I worry about those people.”
She said she’ll be talking with county staff to see if there’s a way to use economic recovery money that the county is getting from the state to relieve some of the financial distress for displaced workers.
What Wichita restaurants are doing
In Wichita, many restaurants have been closing by 10 p.m. or shortly after since the stay-at-home orders were lifted and restaurants were allowed to be open in early May.
And in recent weeks, some bars have been taking their own measures, too. Last week, Cana — a popular cocktail bar at 221 S. Broadway — announced it was closing until further notice as COVID-19 conditions worsened. And a few weeks ago, Peerless, a bar at 919 E. Douglas, eliminated Friday and Saturday hours to try to cut back on crowds.
Austin Henry helps manage two Wichita night clubs — Fever in Old Town and the new Midnight Rodeo, which just opened for business last weekend in the old Club Rodeo space at 10001 E. Kellogg.
The business was open for only a week, Henry said, and that’s concerning for him and the partners who own the club and have invested so much money into it. People don’t understand that if the business is allowed to be open, landlords expect to be paid, Henry said. Bar and nightclub owners are in a tough spot.
Henry said he’d almost rather the county close them down.
“I’m in the entertainment industry, and that’s supposed to be fun,” he said. “But with all the negativity being pointed at bars and nightclubs right now, it’s not fun. My feeling is I’d rather be shut down.”
Erica Lopez, who along with her father, Luis, owns several Wichita restaurants and bars, said it’s been a scary few months, and she’s concerned abut the future of the businesses.
Under the new order, they’ll have to close their Rock Island Live night club attached to Emerson Biggin’s Old Town, and they’ll have to shorten hours at Emerson Biggin’s and at their west-side restaurant, Hurricane Sports Grill.
Frustrations abound, Lopez said, from dealing with customers who refuse to wear masks and social distance to watching other businesses, like grocery stores and home improvement stores, continue to operate as normal even with customers flouting mask rules.
“It’s frustrating to see our (government) really, really going after bars and night clubs,” she said. “And I understand there may be a correlation with an increase of the spread of the disease, but it would just be nice to see other entities getting the same sort of pressure to enforce the rules.”
The family’s businesses have gone through all their PPP money, Lopez said, and the next step will be working with their bank to see if they can close Emerson Biggin’s and Rock Island Live temporarily. They’re offering a promotion over the next couple of weeks where customers who buy $50 gift cards at Emerson Biggin’s will get a $10 gift card to be used toward carryout or delivery during the next 60 days. If that doesn’t help, they’ll consider a temporary closure.
“It is not a good time to be a foodie,” she said.
This story was originally published July 21, 2020 at 10:38 AM.
