Kansas City to reinstate indoor mask mandate August 2

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WDAF) — Mayor Quinton Lucas has reinstated an indoor mask mandate for everyone aged 5 and older, regardless of vaccine status starting Monday, August 2.

The mandate will be effective until at least 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, August 28.

Since COVID-19 first entered our community, Kansas City has followed the guidance issued by our nation’s leading scientific experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and locally by our own Health Department and regional health care leaders. With a 15 percent increase in hospitalizations over the past week and a full vaccination rate of just 39 percent in Kansas City, the CDC and our own Health Department have issued recommendations that all persons—regardless of vaccination status—begin masking in all places of indoor public accommodation. As such, Kansas Citians will need to begin masking in all indoor public places on Monday to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our community and throughout Missouri.
Mayor QUinton Lucas

Lucas continued saying the most effective way to get COVID-19 out of the community is vaccination.

“Vaccinations are the best of all prevention measures,” Kansas City Health Department Deputy Director Health Frank Thompson said. “As long as transmission continues, variants will continue to develop. We don’t know what the next variant will look like, how virulent it will be, and that should concern everyone. Because less than 50 percent of Kansas City is vaccinated, and transmission is still occurring, Kansas Citians should wear a mask according to CDC guidance. The Kansas City metro area has so many jurisdictions, and few people stay in just one to live, work, and play. No matter where you travel to in the metro, please continue to mask up. This is one important way we can all protect each other.”

Missouri Attorney General said he would sue the city in light of the decision, the same thing he did to St. Louis.

“To the great people of Kansas City: I will be filing a lawsuit to protect your freedoms,” Schmitt wrote on Twitter. ” This mask mandate is about politics & control, not science. You are not subjects but citizens of what has been the freest county in the world & I will always fight for you. #NoMaskMandate”

In response, Lucas said he will soon introduce a resolution for City Council support of emergency actions.