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Sedgwick County
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2020-08-04Last Call: Wichita Bars and Nightclubs Close...Again
On July 21, 2020, the Sedgwick County Public Health Officer closed all bars and nightclubs until September 9, a date the Sedgwick County Commission quickly amended to August 21. These photographs show two items that sat side-by-side at the front entrance of the Blu Nightclub in west Wichita, Kansas. The first alerts patrons to the club's mitigation efforts and what is expected of them upon entering the establishment, while the second, which was taped to the front door, informs customers that they are closed until August 22. Although no COVID clusters originated in bars and nightclubs, Sedgwick County contact tracers discovered that infected people had stopped at such businesses and possibly spread the virus even more. Finally, note the owner's insertion of the word "Hopefully" on the left side of the sign. With federal aid expired and relief mired in a partisan deadlock in Washington, D.C., many businesses in Wichita, and across the country, feared the potentially fatal effects repeated closures would have upon their livelihoods. -
2020-06-02Hope Turns to Disappointment: Starkey Reopens...Then Closes Again
As spring gave way to summer in 2020, Starkey gradually opened its day programs for its persons-served in phases, so as to ensure their safety as much as possible. These emails dated June 2 to July 14, 2020, offer a look into a seemingly steady and successful reopening process, while illustrating the patchwork nature of Kansas's reopening, and how individual entities charted their own course while following the state's suggested guidelines. Perhaps most tellingly, the final email conveys the sudden pullback brought about by the virus's continued surge, when the day programs closed yet again due to rapidly rising COVID-19 cases in Sedgwick County, Kansas. Taken together, these items give substance to a quickly deteriorating situation that came to characterize the COVID-19 experience in Sedgwick County during the COVID summer of 2020. -
2020-07-08A Toothless Mandate: Sedgwick County's Mask Order, July 8 and 9, 2020
After the city of Wichita decreed compulsory mask-wearing, the Sedgwick County Local Health officer issued an emergency order overriding the County Commission's decision to not make masks in public mandatory. The first order states that no penalties will enforce the mandate's provisions, while the second, issued the very next day, adds religious institutions to the list of exempted parties; a hot button issue that saw Governor Laura Kelly's administration besieged by lawsuits and accusations of abuse of power during the statewide lockdown. Therefore, these texts are products of the political tensions that hobbled Kansas's response efforts in the face of a surging COVID-19 crisis, with state and local leaders, most if not all of whom identified as Republicans, opting for non-existent counter-measures that prevented "executive overreach," but allowed the virus to flourish. -
2020-06-25Protect Your Fellow Citizens...Please.
Affixed to the jungle gym at Sunset Park in west Wichita, Kansas, this sign encourages Wichitans to protect each other and prevent COVID-19's spread by adopting the listed measures. This photo was taken against the backdrop of rising case numbers in Kansas, as well as in neighboring Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas, as local authorities in Sedgwick County opted to continue re-opening without imposing any restrictions to mitigate the virus's transmission. Given the local government's "hands-off" approach, the effectiveness of any and all mitigation efforts rested solely with citizens' willingness to cooperate. -
2020-05-01Social Distancing in Sedgwick County, Kansas
Despite the city's wide-open spaces and sprawling design, signs like this one outside Sedgwick County's west Wichita extension office still laid out the necessary mitigation measures meant to slow COVID-19's transmission. This particular sign sat alongside the biking/jogging path that skirted by the county office, thus reinforcing both the urgent need for social distancing, as well as the ease with which the virus can spread from person-to-person. Image taken on May 1, 2020.