Sedgwick County health officer eases curfew after bars openly ignored it

Responding to a weekend of late-night and early-morning revelry across the Wichita area, Sedgwick County health officer Dr. Garold Minns eased the county curfew on bars and nightclubs aimed at fighting the spread of COVID-19.

Minns moved the curfew from 11 p.m. to midnight at the recommendation of the Sedgwick County commissioners, who voted unanimously Wednesday to request the change.

On a call with a small group of bar and club owners Thursday afternoon, there was broad consensus by commissioners that they want to do away with the curfew entirely and as soon as possible, as early as next week if COVID-19 numbers continues to improve.

“I think the mood of the commission is if we see positive stuff, we would like to continue to push it (back),” Commission Chair Pete Meitzner said.

The 11 p.m. curfew was widely rejected and not followed by bars and night clubs across Wichita, whose owners say they need to stay open later to make enough money to survive.

Bars and clubs have been closed or working on reduced hours for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic, and some owners told the county commission on Wednesday and Thursday that revenues are down 80 percent or more with the curfew.

There was consensus among bar and club owners at the Thursday meeting with commissioners that staying open late is more important than increasing capacity, which is limited to 50%.

Although many bars have been operating after curfew without penalty, the county and the Wichita Police Department took steps to become more aggressive in enforcing public health mandates.

Wichita police began issuing $25 tickets Saturday at bars that were rejecting the curfew and not requiring masks inside the bars. Also this week, the county tied coronavirus small business grants to compliance with the order, which Minns changed from voluntary to mandatory after the bars flouted the rules. Bars and clubs that violate the order face the threat of civil penalties or an injunction.

Thursday afternoon, Meitzner softened the tone, asking business owners to stop breaking the rules and to cooperate with the county. He emphasized that the county can use discretion on whether to take action against violators but warned that bars could lose their immunity in lawsuits related to COVID-19 if they don’t follow Minns’ order.

“We’re in no mood to enforce,” Meitzner said.

Michelle Borin, owner of Michelle’s Beach House, a topless exotic dance club in Derby, said Wednesday that the curfew hurts her business because people don’t come out to start partying until right around the time the curfew starts. She said her employees are looking for work elsewhere and she is losing clientele because of the curfew.

“I cannot stress enough that we cannot survive by closing at 11 p.m. It just doesn’t make sense,” Borin said Wednesday.

Kyle Okumura, owner of Revolution Lounge in Old Town, said that even though his club operated after curfew, it is taking public health precautions to protect employees and patrons.

“We have done more than what other companies are required to do,” Okumura said. “We make all of our employees wear masks, we have installed sanitation areas for people who come in to use, we take people’s temperatures, and we’re trying to go above and beyond,” he said.

The order says that bars and clubs must continue to follow other public health precautions, such as requiring masks of employees and patrons, social distancing and cutting capacity in half.

Bar owners and some commissioners have questioned whether bars and night clubs are hot spots for the spread of COVID-19 because the Sedgwick County Health Department has not named any bars or clubs with active coronavirus clusters.

The county has refused to name what businesses are associated with individual COVID-19 cases or clusters unless it determines there’s an ongoing threat to the public.

Sedgwick County Health Director Adrienne Byrne suggested Thursday that the virus has been spreading through bars and nightclubs in Wichita. But limits on contact tracing have made it difficult to pinpoint exactly where people caught the virus.

Under state law, people who test positive for COVID-19 don’t have to tell contact tracers where they’ve been. But a common theme among young adults who contracted the virus was bar hopping.

“So no, there’s not a cluster (identified on the county’s website) because we can’t connect it to this certain place. But going to clubs was the most frequent that was coming up for that age group (20-39),” Byrne said.

That aligns with the wording of Minns’ order, which says, “information within Sedgwick County has indicated that bars and night clubs have commonly been locations frequented by younger adults who tested positive for COVID-19.”

“The nature of activity that occurs within bars, night clubs, and other drinking establishments results in a significant amount of social interaction between patrons, reduced wearing of masks, reduced social distancing, and reduced compliance with best practices when patrons may become intoxicated,” the order says.

This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 1:28 PM.