The Platte County Health Department Board of Trustees issued an updated health order last week, bringing the county in line with guidelines issued by the City of Kansas City on Monday, Nov. 16.
New requirements in the order include:
All venues serving food and drink indoors must operate at 50 percent capacity or less and must close at 10 p.m. Drive-thru service, curbside pickup and delivery of food may continue after 10 p.m.
All indoor gatherings are limited to 10 people such as concerts, conferences and celebrations such as weddings, birthdays and funerals. Plans must be submitted for all gatherings of over 10 people to be approved by the health department.
Last week, health department director Mary Jo Vernon shared a stark outlook on the situation in the Kansas City metro area prior to the board’s approval of the new measures.
“All of us health directors are feeling the urgency to make some stronger strategies to help protect our citizens, to protect our hospitals and to help protect all of us if we need to be admitted to the hospitals,” Vernon said. “Things are looking very frightening. Several doctors in the meetings I’m in on have said ‘we’re afraid of where we’re going.’ I’ve worked in health care for many decades and I’ve never heard a doctor say that.”
The belief that Platte County has been insulated by its partially rural nature has proven incorrect by the rapidly increasing case numbers, she said.
With the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, health department officials urged people to be careful and follow safety guidelines.
“Homeowners are expected to help our community’s efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19 by limiting the size of gatherings and complying with the intent of the order,” the health department said in a statement. To that end, it urges everyone ages five and older to wear masks, those living in different households to sit at separate tables, at least six feet apart and that hand sanitizer be provided to guests.
As of Tuesday, Nov. 24, the total number of cases in Platte County was at 3,228 with 1,603 within the City of Kansas City and the remainder outside city limits. Daily new case counts have steadily risen in recent weeks, according to the health department, and more than doubled within the last two weeks.
The regular meeting of the board of trustees on Tuesday, Nov. 17 kicked off with an update from a local authority on public health who painted a bleak picture of the path ahead.
Platte City resident Steve Hoeger works for Truman Medical Center and serves on Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) committees overseeing regional health care. Hoeger said Kansas City metro area hospitals are running at or near capacity for many weeks now, with 10-15 percent of admissions are from COVID-19 and patients are requiring longer stays to recover.
Hospitals are also experiencing staffing problems, as the healthcare industry was facing a nursing shortage before COVID, but the situation has worsened due to the pandemic. Hoeger said hospitals may need to begin postponing non-life-threatening procedures that would require hospital stays to conserve capacity and staff.
“If things don’t change we’re not going to have any choice but to start operating differently than we have been – we might be going back to where we were last spring,” Hoeger said. “What was very different is people weren’t coming to the hospital and it was easier to cancel those procedures.”
He said the high volume of sick people now is also due, in part, to people putting off routine healthcare earlier this year due to the pandemic. Another delay period will lead to a later surge in non-COVID-related health problems.