COVID-19

Kansas Snow Days 'Good For The Soul,' But The Pandemic Means Fewer Of Them Even After 2020

By • Nov 27, 2020
Briana O'Higgins / KMUW

WICHITA, Kansas — Between concerns about schools staying open and the challenges of learning remotely, teachers and students are haunted by another question that goes beyond 2020: Will snow days disappear forever?

The Range | Nov. 27, 2020

By • Nov 27, 2020
Courtesy

The number of COVID-19 cases in Kansas has doubled in the last five weeks. The spike has led to overcrowded hospitals and nearly 250 deaths this month. And African Americans are being hit particularly hard: Black Kansans are three times more likely to test positive for COVID-19 than white Kansans, and more than seven times more likely to die from the disease.

This week on The Range, we talk to one Wichita woman about her battle with COVID-19, and why she says sharing her story is so important.

A Tempered Black Friday Leads Wichita Into An Uncertain Holiday Sales Season

By • Nov 27, 2020
Nadya Faulx / KMUW/File photo

Black Friday normally acts as the unofficial start to the holiday shopping season.

But 2020 upended that tradition ... like so many others.

Sedgwick County Issues New Health Order And Sets Up Online Portal To Report Violators

By • Nov 27, 2020
Beth Golay / KMUW/File photo

A new COVID-19 health order for Sedgwick County limits public gatherings to 25 people and continues current restrictions for businesses.

The mandates are in effect Friday through Jan. 9. This latest health order from Sedgwick County Health Officer Dr. Garold Minns replaces directives that were in effect since Nov. 13.

Most Kansas Counties Rejected The Mask Order Before, But The Coronavirus Surge Changed That

By • Nov 25, 2020

At least 73 Kansas counties now require masks. The true number could be higher as the dust settles on a midnight deadline for each county to decide.

That’s a sharp increase since the summer, when all but 25 of the state’s 105 counties rejected Gov. Laura Kelly’s statewide mask rules.

Wichita Restaurant Owners Say They're COVID Scapegoats, Urge Decision Makers To Study Data

By Denise Neil/The Wichita Eagle • Nov 24, 2020
Jaime Green/The Wichita Eagle

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started eight months ago, local restaurant owners have been overwhelmed.

In March, they had to shut down their restaurants, figure out how to launch carryout only models, and try to navigate unemployment and loans and grants that could help them and their employees stay afloat.

Fewer Kansans Expected To Fly This 'Different' Holiday Season

By • Nov 24, 2020
Nadya Faulx / KMUW/File photo

Wichita’s Eisenhower National Airport is looking at a slower-than-normal holiday travel season as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns against traveling at all.

Three Kansans Share The 'Heartbreaking' Pain Of A Lost Thanksgiving

By • Nov 23, 2020
Brian Grimmett / Kansas News Service

WICHITA — Coronavirus cases are at record levels. Just in time to pretty much ruin Thanksgiving.

In Kansas, those cases have hospitals worried about having enough space or staff. That’s prompted local, state and federal officials to urge people to just stay home.

We spoke with three Kansans about their decisions to cancel trips to see family — and the loss that represents.

Mask Rules Helped Kansas Counties Slow The March Of Coronavirus, New CDC Report Suggests

By & Celia Llopis-Jepsen • Nov 20, 2020

In Kansas counties that adopted mask rules last summer, the spread of COVID-19 slowed, new research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.

The study by federal and state epidemiologists suggests that if more counties follow suit, it could help stem a disastrous groundswell that has hospitals in Kansas and across the Midwest reeling.

Kansas Aims To Boost Virus Testing, But Strategy Unfinished

By • Nov 19, 2020
KMUW/File photo

Nearly two months after Gov. Laura Kelly announced that Kansas would develop a "unified" strategy to ramp up coronavirus testing, the program is enough of a work in progress that even some of the state's contractors don't yet have all the details.

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