PITTSBURG, Kan. — Gov. Laura Kelly and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) on Thursday announced a transition to the next stage of the state’s response to COVID-19, “pivoting from emergency pandemic response to endemic normalcy.”
Starting Friday, “KDHE will make changes to continue the transition from emergency response to our ‘new normal,’ which includes life with COVID-19 — similar to how we deal with other recurring diseases like the flu,” according to a press release from Kelly’s office. “Using the lessons learned over the past two years, KDHE will continue to ensure the State is prepared for potential surges or other needs that might arise in the future.”
The state “is continuing the transition to a new phase of understanding and living with COVID-19,” Gov. Kelly said in the release. “We know the pandemic is not over, however we now have the tools and knowledge obtained over the past two years to prevent or reduce the spread of the virus. We are normalizing our COVID-19 response and incorporating these lessons into our larger efforts at improving health outcomes for all Kansans, which includes work on multiple diseases and an awareness of differing risk factors.”
The announcement “comes as current COVID-19 metrics are moving in the right direction,” according to the release. That certainly seems to hold true in Crawford County, where the county health department saw only three new COVID-19 cases last week, down from five new cases the previous week and 16 the week before that, according to the latest data released by the health department. As recently as mid-February, the county was still seeing more than 100 new COVID-19 cases identified every week. In one week in January, there were more than 1,000 new positive cases identified in Crawford County.
“In our new normal, we will continue to ensure that Kansans have equitable access to life-saving vaccines, tests, and treatments. This shift does not mean that COVID is over, but rather we are working to manage the disease in a way that allows us to maintain a more normal life that is once again filled with friends, families and other loved ones,” KDHE Secretary Janet Stanek said in Thursday’s release.
Working with local health departments, the release said, KDHE’s endemic plan will continue to address six key areas related to COVID-19, including intervention, vaccination, treatment, testing, monitoring, and communications.
“Across each of the above areas, KDHE will remain prepared to ramp up capacity to quickly respond to a surge and keep Kansans safe should the need arise,” according to the release.
