TOPEKA — Kansas considers meatpacking plant workers and grocery store employees essential workers, putting them just behind health care workers and nursing home residents for coronavirus vaccines, Gov. Laura Kelly said Friday. The Democratic governor also said members of the ...

Updated at 2:35 p.m. Friday Douglas County, starting Monday, will adopt a 10-day quarantine period for asymptomatic close contacts of people with COVID-19, according to a news release from Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health. The move came Friday after the Kansas Department of Health and ...

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Two northeast Kansas counties on Thursday rejected at least part of the new federal and state guidelines for shortening the time people are quarantined after they're possibly exposed to COVID-19. New guidance Wednesday from the federal Centers for Disease Control and ...

The Lawrence school board on Thursday formally adopted criteria for guidance on how to conduct school amid the coronavirus pandemic, adding more criteria to consider than local health officials have previously. The board’s criteria is based on the Kansas State Department of Education’s ...

Dozens of Kansas nursing homes still wait three days to a week for overwhelmed labs to tell them if their residents have COVID-19. As of mid-November, 30 facilities had less than a week’s worth of N95 masks on hand. Another 100-plus didn’t have enough nurses. Nine months into a pandemic ...

Gov. Laura Kelly launched a new COVID-19 public health campaign and testing website on Thursday, according to a news release from her office.  The campaign, called "Stop the Spread. It's Up to Us, Kansas," will share the importance of getting tested, wearing masks and social distancing this ...

TOPEKA — Former Kansas Supreme Court Justice Tyler Lockett died after contracting COVID-19, officials said Wednesday. Lockett, 87, died Saturday. He was appointed to the state’s highest court in 1983 by Democratic Gov. John Carlin, and the justice retired in 2003. He had been a district ...

Updated at 3:41 p.m. Thursday Douglas County's health department is asking that local health care employers who are interested in having their employees receive an FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine enroll for the county's COVID-19 vaccination program. The Kansas Department of Health and ...

FREDONIA — Nick Baldetti resigned as director of the Reno County Health Department in July. He left to head an effort to establish a school of health at McPherson College. It was a good opportunity, Baldetti said, but he likely would have stayed to see the department through the pandemic if ...

To make sure outstanding federal pandemic relief money is spent before an end-of-the-year deadline, the Douglas County Commission on Wednesday reallocated about $650,000 unspent funds in its CARES Act spending plan. And county staff believes there will be more funds to reallocate in about a ...

TOPEKA — A Kansas health official says a COVID-19 vaccine could be available for many high-risk health care workers in mid-December. Phil Griffin, deputy director of the bureau of disease control and prevention for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said pending approval from ...

The Lawrence school board will meet for a special meeting to continue discussions about its COVID-19 guidance. Board President Kelly Jones called for the board to meet at 6:30 p.m. Thursday to discuss which criteria it wants to use for its version of guidance that outlines how the district ...

One more Douglas County resident has died from COVID-19, according to the health department, making this the fifth COVID-19-related death in the past week. The death announced Wednesday is also the youngest person to have died from COVID-19 in the county to date. The new death, which brings ...

Belle Plaine — Anticipated staffing shortages amid surging coronavirus cases could hit rural hospitals especially hard because smaller communities have more limited options for finding providers to cover for sick workers, medical providers say. “We are doing what we can to make sure our ...

One more Douglas County resident has died from COVID-19, according to the local health department’s update about the virus on Tuesday. Previously, Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health announced that 25 people — seven residents between the ages of 65 and 74, five residents between the ages ...

Douglas County may soon approve a backup plan to spend outstanding federal pandemic relief money before the end-of-year deadline. During its meeting on Wednesday, the County Commission will consider giving County Administrator Sarah Plinsky the authority to execute a contingency plan for the ...

Hospital and nursing officials fear that if COVID-19 cases continue unchecked there won't be enough nurses to staff new hospital beds in the near future in the Kansas City metro area. "All the things we were worried about could be possible in March, April and May are actually happening ...

Three more Douglas County residents have died from COVID-19, according to the health department’s Monday update about the virus, meaning 25 residents total have been killed by the virus. Previously, Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health announced that 22 people — six residents between the ...

WICHITA — 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? Schools invested in both the knowhow and technology to teach students remotely. In the ...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City area has reached an unwanted milestone: Coronavirus deaths in the region have now topped 1,000. The Kansas City Star reports that nine new deaths cited Thursday brought the total since the onset of the pandemic to 1,003. The number includes Kansas ...