Governor Kelly announces four executive orders to aid Kansans during COVID-19 pandemic

Addresses trash and recycling continuation, extends deadlines, amends eviction executive order

Governor Laura Kelly signed today executive orders #20-10, #20-11, #20-12, and #20-13, as part of her administration’s comprehensive response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The safety and well-being of Kansans is my top priority,” Kelly said. “During these trying times we need essential services to continue to function to secure our public safety and health. We also need some leniency when it comes to deadlines. These executive orders are necessary steps to help Kansas families during this crisis.”

#20-10

Kelly rescinded Executive Order #20-06 and replaced it with Executive Order #20-10, which temporarily prohibits certain foreclosures and evictions. The EO explicitly requires that a financial hardship indirectly or directly caused by COVID-19 be the reason a homeowner or renter can’t make payments. In addition, no landlords can evict a residential tenant when all defaults or violations of the rental agreement are caused by financial hardships due to COVID-19. These measures are especially important because housing disruption inhibits the ability of the state and local communities to effectively respond to COVID-19 and the public health dangers it presents.

#20-11

Kelly signed Executive Order #20-11, which prevents all Kansas waste removal providers, trash and recycling, from cancelling or suspending commercial or residential waste or recycling removal services for Kansas residences and businesses as a result of nonpayment due to significant loss of income or increase in expenses resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Ensuring that waste and recycling services continue is essential to maintaining  public health, especially when personal hygiene and staying at home are the primary methods for slowing the spread of COVID-19.

#20-12

Kelly signed Executive Order #20-12, extending deadlines for driver’s licenses and vehicle registration renewals and regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic. All driver’s license renewals and vehicle registrations extended by this Executive Order must be completed within 60 days of the expiration of Executive Order #20-12. Many Kansans may be unable to renew their driver’s license or vehicle registration during this time, but delivery drivers and other critical employees must be able to continue critical operations and drive without fear of licensing or registration issues.

#20-13

Kelly signed Executive Order #20-13, extending tax filing deadlines to July 15, 2020, and waiving any interest and penalties for returns and payments made on or before July 15, 2020. In the event the State of Disaster Emergency originally proclaimed on March 12, 2020, is lifted or expires prior to July 15, 2020, the Department of Revenue shall continue to exercise appropriate discretion to make effective the waivers of penalties and interest for payments made up to July 15, 2020. This order is intended to bring Kansas’ tax filing procedures in line with federal IRS measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

KDHE updates the public on testing prioritization;

issues new quarantine notices

TOPEKA – The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) is issuing several updates today, including the addition of new states to the quarantine mandates as well as a prioritization for COVID-19 tests submitted to the Kansas Health and Environmental Laboratories.

Two states added to 14-day home quarantine

KDHE is now mandating 14-day home quarantine for Kansans who have:

• Traveled to a state with known widespread community transmission (California, Florida, New York and Washington state) on or after March 15.
• Traveled to Illinois or New Jersey on or after March 23.
• Visited Eagle, Summit, Pitkin and Gunnison counties in Colorado in the week of March 8 or after.
• Traveled on a cruise ship or river cruise on or after March 15.
  • People who have previously been told by Public Health to quarantine because of their cruise ship travel should finish out their quarantine.
• Traveled internationally on or after March 15.
  • People who have previously been told by Public Health to quarantine because of their international travel to China, South Korea, Japan, Italy and Iran should finish out their quarantine.
• Received notification from public health officials (state or local) that you are a close contact of a laboratory-confirmed case of COVID-19. You should quarantine at home for 14 days since your last contact with the case.  (A close contact is defined as someone who has been closer than 6 feet for more than 10 minutes while the patient is symptomatic.)

Important Note: These mandates do not apply to critical infrastructure sectors needed to continue operations during this pandemic. Public health, including hospitals, clinics, etc. need to have the staffing resources to continue serving Kansans. While KDHE strongly recommends these quarantine restrictions for everyone, we do recognize that medical care needs to continue and no healthcare facility should ever be to a point where it would need to close due to staff being quarantined. We ask facilities to ensure they have updated their Emergency Preparedness Plans and implement protocols to ensure that no employee comes to work symptomatic. Other examples of critical infrastructures include pharmaceutical and food supply, along with others defined by the Department of Homeland Security.

Testing Prioritization Change

Due to widescale shortages of laboratory supplies and reagents, testing for COVID-19 at the state lab is being prioritized for public health purposes and urgent need. KDHE will be prioritizing specimens for COVID-19 testing based upon those who meet Kansas’ patient under investigation (PUI) criteria starting today, March 23.

Those include:

• Healthcare workers and first responders who have COVID-19 symptoms
• Potential clusters of unknown respiratory illness, with priority given to long-term care facilities and healthcare facilities
• Hospitalized patients with no alternative diagnosis
• Individuals over the age of 60 who have symptoms of COVID-19 with priority given to people who reside in a nursing home, long-term care facility, or other congregate setting, and
• Individuals with underlying health conditions that would be treated differently if they were infected with COVID-19.

Specimens that were sent to KDHE prior to March 23, will still be tested. However, moving forward healthcare providers should:

• Send specimens to a commercial reference laboratory.
• Inform all patients who present with symptoms compatible with COVID-19 (e.g., measured fever of 100.4 (F) or greater and lower respiratory symptoms including cough or shortness of breath) who are not a high priority for testing to:
  • Self-isolate at home or another appropriate location for 7 days after illness onset or for 72 hours after resolution of fever (without fever-reducing medication) and significant improvement in symptoms, whichever is longer.

“KDHE has been in contact with the CDC, FEMA, manufacturers and distributors of the testing supplies and reagents to find ones our laboratory needs to run the specimens collected for COVID-19 testing,” Dr. Lee Norman, KDHE Secretary, said. “We are doing everything in our power to get supplies for our state. We are focusing testing in our lab on higher risk individuals at this time.”

For more information, please visit the KDHE website at www.kdheks.gov/coronavirus. KDHE has a phone bank that is staffed Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 7 p.m. The phone number is 1-866-534-3463 (1-866-KDHEINF). KDHE also has an email address for general inquiries, [email protected].  Please note these contacts are for general questions and cannot provide you with medical evaluations. If you are feeling ill, please stay home and call your healthcare provider.

Governor Kelly announces Executive Order to further improve public safety regarding COVID-19 pandemic

Governor Kelly today announced new measures to protect Kansas families from the spread of  COVID-19, the novel coronavirus.

On Tuesday, Governor Kelly will issue an Executive Order limiting mass gatherings to 10 persons. The decision was based on updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and modeling from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) that projected cases of COVID-19 in Kansas to sharply rise to a range of 300 to 900 by the end of the month.

“This is an escalating crisis, and we must make sacrifices and adjustments to ensure the safety of our neighbors,” Kelly said. “We all need to do what we can to reduce the spread of COVID-19.”

The Executive Order to be issued Tuesday also includes a framework counties will be required to use if local officials determine it is necessary to issue stay-at-home orders. The guidance will provide information on how to include these orders for essential infrastructure and businesses.

With 89 Kansas counties without a confirmed case as of today, the Governor does not plan to issue a statewide stay-at-home order at this time.

“The crisis continues to evolve by the hour, and a statewide stay-at-home order may indeed become necessary at some point soon,” Kelly said. “For now, the actions we are taking will ensure as much consistency as possible for local communities.

The Governor also reiterated the need for Kansans to be proactive and work together.

“The most effective way we can slow down the virus is to stay home,” Kelly said. “Continue practicing good hygiene and take all of these orders seriously. These actions will help mitigate the spread of COVID-19, save lives and help us all transition back to our normal routines.”

• This document is updated every afternoon and available on www.kdheks.gov/coronavirus.
• KDHE has created a toolkit of Kansas-specific guidance to help local public health departments engage with their community partners on COVID-19 planning. It can be found on the KDHE website: www.kdheks.gov/coronavirus. New information is added daily.

For more information: www.kdheks.gov/coronavirus
2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Kansas Test Results
Updated 3/23/20 at 10 a.m.

Total Positive Cases
82
Private Labs
47
Kansas Health and Environmental Lab
35
Deaths (included in above numbers)
Johnson and Wyandotte
2
Out-of-State Resident Positive Cases*
(not counted in Kansas numbers)
2

Positive Case Information
County Number
County

Bourbon
1
Linn County
2
Butler County
3
Lyon
2
Cherokee County
2
Mitchell County
2
Douglas County
8
Morris County
2
Franklin
1
Pottawatomie**
1
Jackson County
1
Reno County
2
Johnson County
32
Sedgwick
2
Leavenworth County
5
Wyandotte
16
*Ford and Miami Counties reported positive cases in out-of-state residents.
**The Pottawatomie case was labeled as Riley County’s yesterday. The person was determined to be a resident of Pottawatomie County and the chart is now reflective of that change.