Seward County Commissioners Approve the Local COVID-19 Response Guidelines

Seward County Commissioners Approve the Local COVID-19 Response Guidelines
The Board of County Commissioners of Seward County, on the recommendations of the Unified
Command of the Emergency Operations Center, moved to not impose additional restrictions at this time
and recommend but do not require that Seward County residents and businesses adhere to Phase 2 and
Phase 3 portions of the Governor’s Ad Astra plan, with a few modifications.
First, the recommended gathering limit in Phase 2 be increased from 15 to 30, and that the provisions of
Phase 2 last until June 7. Second, the recommended gathering limit in Phase 3 be increased from 45 to
90, and that provisions of Phase 3 begin on June 8, and last until June 22, unless our testing numbers
suggest an earlier or later end date. All businesses would now be open, which mainly affects bars and
night clubs, which were to remain closed under the governor’s plan in Phase 2.
It was further approved that we adopt the document titled Seward County Re-opening Principles to
navigate decisions to resume operation and still protect the public health.
“Seward County Re-Opening Key Principles”
1. There is a need to protect all aspects of our community: Public health, economic health, and
ability to enjoy life. In the ongoing COVID19 situation, there is also the need to continue to
protect the ability of our health care community to offer medical services.
2. We will continue to protect the vulnerable aspects of our community, especially those where
outbreaks have been shown to occur, such as long-term care facilities, incarceration facilities
and hospitals. We will protect these entities by supporting the safety measures and rules of
those facilities, by providing PPE, by providing access to testing, and providing other guidance.
3. We will continue to test. We will continue to use contact tracing to identify any problem areas
of our community, and then decide if additional measures are needed to address those areas.
We encourage the Seward County Public Health Officer to continue to issue and enforce
appropriate quarantine and isolation orders, and we expect those orders to be followed. These
orders prevent the spread of the disease in our community.
4. Businesses, organizations and government operations (“Entities”) are allowed to open and can
adopt such protective measures that fit circumstances unique to each of them as they see fit,
especially social distancing, masks, and protective barriers, and to adopt their own re-opening
plans as they feel is appropriate.
5. The public should continue to follow recommendations of the Kansas Department of Health and
Environment and the Seward County Health Department for personal protections, such as the
social distancing recommendations, wearing a mask when in public and frequent washing of
hands. The virus is real, and these are all good ideas.
6. We will monitor our local situation, paying attention to three core local health metrics to guide
decisions: Disease spread, hospitalizations and deaths.