The Pottawatomie County Commission, while convened as the Board of Health on Monday, unanimously decided to opt out of Gov. Laura Kelly’s latest statewide mask mandate.
In adopting Health Order No. 9, the commission will continue a stance that it first took when it opted out of the original statewide mask mandate in July.
County health administrators encouraged the commission to maintain the mandate, saying that increasing case numbers are leading to hospital staffing issues and an inability to transfer patients to other facilities.
“There are no beds to be found,” Todd Willert, chief executive officer of Community HealthCare System, Inc. out of Onaga, said. “We’re not just talking Stormont and St. Francis, we’re talking about KU Med., we’re talking into Kansas City, we’re talking up into Lincoln, Nebraska, wherever we can try to find one.”
Steve Land, Wamego Health Center administrator, shared Willert’s concerns over staffing and hospital-bed availability and expressed that implementing a combination of health measures, and not just one at a time, is currently one of the most effective ways of preventing the spread of COVID-19.
“Right now, everybody is kind of learning (about) this thing as we go,” Land said. “What we do know is that washing hands, social distancing and mask wearing are the best things in a combination.”
Pottawatomie County Health Department officials also got involved in the discussion, saying schools and businesses would benefit from having their requests for people to wear masks inside reinforced by a county health order.
Despite these concerns and recommendations, the commission maintained that it does not want to make wearing a face mask a requirement.
Greg Riat, Pottawatomie County commissioner, cited Pottawatomie County having lower case numbers than surrounding counties as his reasoning for keeping the mask mandate at bay.
“If you look at the state of Kansas’s KDHE, statistically, our county is doing pretty well,” Riat said. “In comparison to other counties, Jackson County is pretty darn high. I say this and commend our healthcare workers and our excellent health department, but you can’t ignore that fact.”
It is not certain which statistics Riat was referencing when speaking about Jackson County.
According to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s website, as of 9 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 23, Jackson County has had 629 total positive COVID-19 cases and 15 COVID-19 related hospitalizations and has a case rate per 1,000 of about 47.8. Pottawatomie County has had 649 total positive COVID-19 cases and 25 COVID-19 related hospitalizations and has a case rate per 1,000 of about 26.6.
The commission also expressed that enforcing a mask mandate would be a difficult task for the county and that cities are better equipped to do so.
“Cities can do some control, if they want to, by the fact that they have police that can be close to the people and see that,” Dee McKee, Pottawatomie County commissioner, said. “It is not in the purview of the counties to be able to go out and take in individual events at the level that’s expected to really make a difference.”
Pat Weixelman, Pottawatomie County commissioner, said to the health administrators that, ultimately, no one can truly know which route is best for preventing the spread of the coronavirus.
“You’ve got more education on this than myself but, at the same time, I don’t think there is anyone who is educated enough to know exactly what needs to happen,” Weixelman said. “The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) came out the other day saying you don’t have to worry about wiping surfaces down anymore. They said it doesn’t do any good.”
While the commissioners would ultimately go on to opt out of the mask mandate despite the recommendations of Willert and Land, Weixelman communicated that the issues hospitals and other healthcare facilities are dealing with are not lost on him.
“I wish there was some way that, if we keep it the way it is, that we could help with the hospitals and the problem that they’re dealing with,” Weixelman said. “I want everybody to know that it’s always on my mind. It’s been on my mind since day one – how to handle this and what’s the fair way to do it.”
Francis Awerkamp, a member of the Kansas House of Representatives serving the 61st district, also attended the meeting and advocated for the commission to opt out of the mandate.
Cities in Pottawatomie County are subject to the county’s decision unless they decide to put their own mask mandates in place.
The statewide mask mandate is set to take effect on Nov. 25 for counties that decide to opt in.
The post Pott. County opts out of mask mandate despite appeals from healthcare administrators appeared first on News Radio KMAN.
