KANSAS CITY (AP) — Kansas City on Wednesday issued a new mask order in an effort to stem a rise in COVID-19 cases that is straining hospitals, leading to an immediate threat of a lawsuit.
Health officials said in a news release that they had documented more than 600 breakthrough cases in which vaccinated people tested positive for COVID-19, and they stressed that the total is likely higher.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said Wednesday that he will reinstate an indoor mask mandate similar to one in St. Louis. It will take effect Monday and last through at least Aug. 28. Lucas said that because of the litigation in the St. Louis area over masking, he also would introduce a City Council resolution.
He also noted that the CDC now recommends that even vaccinated people should wear masks indoors in places where the coronavirus is surging.
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who is seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, vowed in a tweet to sue, saying he thinks the mandate is “about politics & control, not science."
Lucas fired back, tweeting, “What are you suing about? Do you want us to just schedule a debate on Fox News so you can get the press? I’m down!"
The push to require masks comes as Missouri deals with a surge in COVID-19 cases that began in rural areas, where vaccination rates are low, and spread to cities.
Questions over the legality of local mask requirements stem from a law Republican Gov. Mike Parson signed last month that limits the duration of local public health restrictions and bars governments from requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination to use public facilities and transportation. Although the law doesn't specifically mention masks, it allows the governing body of any city or county to end a public health order issued for the purpose of preventing the spread of a contagious disease by a majority vote.
With cases rising among children and outbreaks at camps and day care facilities, Springfield area health officials announced plans Tuesday to focus stretched contract tracing on people younger than 12 years old, who aren't eligible to get vaccinated.
In the northern part of the state, health officials also complained that contract tracers are inundated. St. Joseph Mayor Bill McMurray strongly encouraged people to follow the CDC guidelines to wear masks inside public spaces and to get vaccinated. A paltry 22.4% of residents in the county that includes St. Joseph are vaccinated.
“We’re abysmally low,” he lamented, adding that he didn't have the City Council support to issue another mask order. “I have to underscore, I'm the mayor, I'm not the monarch. I can't just decree."
In southeastern Missouri, a standing-room only crowd turned out Tuesday for the Cape Girardeau County public health meeting, including many who carried protest signs. Public Health Center Board of Trustees chairman John Freeze said there wouldn't be door-to-door campaign to promote vaccines — a method that President Joe Biden has promoted — and that there were “no plans whatsoever” to issue a mask order, the Southeast Missourian reported.