© 2024
In touch with the world ... at home on the High Plains
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
KTOT-FM 89.5 serving the northeast TX Panhandle is off the air due to the failure of both air conditioning units needed to cool it's high-power transmitter. The air conditioning units are currently being replaced and other HVAC improvements made. If all goes well, we hope to have these repairs made and KTOT back on the air by the end of the day on Friday, 10/10. We apologize for this this interruption in service. In the meantime, you can always listen on-line through the player above or on HPPR's mobile app to either HPPR Mix, KTOT's regular programming, or HPPR Connect featuring all news and information programming.

With Hospitals Reeling, Kansas Gov. Kelly Makes Second Push To Tame Coronavirus With Masks

Stephan Bisaha
/
Kansas News Service

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly is again pressing a statewide mask requirement to tame a coronavirus surge that has filled the state’s intensive care beds and left at least one major hospital caring for patients in hallways.

On Wednesday, Kelly issued her second statewide order. It gives county commissions one week to write their own local mask-wearing rules. If they don’t, her rules take effect.

The counties can still dodge any rules, for the same reason most have done so since her first mask order in July. The Republican-controlled Legislature passed a law that made her emergency orders virtually toothless by letting local officials opt out.

Today, fewer than 40 of the state’s 105 counties have mask rules in force.

Kelly said she now thinks her orders will stick.

She said Republican leaders offered little pushback when she approached them about issuing a second mask order. They even signaled to her that fewer counties would likely reverse them this time.

“It’s encouraging,” she said. “I take ‘not being against it’ as being supportive.”

Coronavirus has surged across Kansas, with about 36,000 new cases over the past two weeks. Hospitals have run out of rooms and staff. Two Kansas counties, Rawlins and Nemaha, were among the nation’s top 15 for highest number of cases per resident on Wednesday.

Desperate doctors have turned to neighboring states for help, but hospitals there often are full, too.

The number of coronavirus cases has shot up across the U.S. to more than 11.5 million known cases.

Most states have mask mandates, and some that hadn’t issued any before cracked down recently, including Iowa and North Dakota. In Kansas, rural areas like Garden City and Dodge City recently adopted mask orders after significant spikes and overwhelmed area hospitals.

Celia Llopis-Jepsen reports on consumer health and education for the Kansas News Service. You can follow her on Twitter@celialj_LJ or email her at celia (at) kcur (dot) org. The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on the health and well-being of Kansans, their communities and civic life.

Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link toksnewsservice.org

Copyright 2020 KCUR 89.3

Celia comes to the Kansas News Service after five years at the Topeka Capital-Journal. She brings in-depth experience covering schools and education policy in Kansas as well as news at the Statehouse. In the last year she has been diving into data reporting. At the Kansas News Service she will also be producing more radio, a medium she’s been yearning to return to since graduating from Columbia University with a master’s in journalism.