Kansas is planning fewer updates of data about COVID 19, now that Governor Laura Kelly has declared the State is moving toward treating it as a disease, like the flu, that spreads regularly. Kelly says the State Department of Health and Environment will continue to support access to free COVID 19 testing, work to ensure that vulnerable populations can be vaccinated, see that providers serve a broad population and give “comprehensive guidance” about the virus.
The Health Department will now update its online dashboards on COVID 19 cases and vaccinations only on Fridays. The data had been updated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The Democratic Governor’s announcement came more that nine months after top Republicans in the Legislature ended a State of Emergency for the coronavirus pandemic, over Kelly’s objection. Some GOP lawmakers have expressed frustration in recent weeks that Kelly’s Administration had not formally declared an end to the pandemic. Kelly says that “endemic normalcy” will become the state’s “new normal”
