Kansas law gives local health departments and health officers the authority to slow the spread of infectious diseases in their jurisdictions by any means known to be effective, Kristi Zears, director of communications for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said. This includes the power to instruct businesses to close if they are the location of a known outbreak or associated with high-risk behaviors. In Sedgwick County, for instance, the local health officer ordered the closure of bars until at least September as the area teeters close to an overwhelmed healthcare system. In Johnson County, however, where the cases per 100,000 people rate is higher, Barbara Mitchell, public information officer for the community health division, said the health department has not required any individual businesses to close since the initial orders from Local Health Officer Dr. Joseph LeMaster shutdown nonessential businesses in March. [The Johnson County Department of Health and Environment’s] approach is to focus on individual cases and work with them to trace their contacts in order to prevent the spread of the virus,” Mitchell said in an email.
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