photo by: Screenshot/Kansas Governor's Office

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, right, delivers a daily press briefing, Wednesday, April 22, 2020, at the Statehouse in Topeka.

Without going into specifics on Wednesday, Gov. Laura Kelly announced metrics that health officials will use going forward to determine when the state can safely start to reopen.

Those focal points center on Kansas’ testing capacity, hospital surge capacity, personal protective equipment and contact tracing operation.

Those standards, combined with a clear tapering of new COVID-19 cases for 14 days, will be the cue Kelly’s administration needs to know the state can begin its gradual reopening process.

Kelly said more specific information will be released next week.

“I know the uncertainty is taking its toll, but there is light at the end of the tunnel,” Kelly said in her daily COVID-19 press briefing. “We’re working as quickly as we can to reach that point.”

Kelly also announced a new executive order that eases some licensing restrictions and physician supervision requirements for health care workers in an effort to bolster the field of qualified professionals in the state.

The order will waive physician supervision or collaboration requirements for certain licensees assisting in response efforts, including advance practice registered nurses, physician’s assistants and licensed practical nurses.

Some former health care workers who have had their licenses lapse within the last five years will also temporarily be able to provide services within their qualifications, Kelly said.

The order, Kelly said, is a first step targeted at addressing Kansas’ immediate emergency response needs to handle an increased patient presence amid the global pandemic.

“These are qualified health care professionals who provide safe, high-quality care to Kansans on a daily basis,” she said. “Temporarily easing some regulatory measures will help ensure patients with COVID-19 receive the care that they need.”

Dr. Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, appeared with Kelly at Wednesday’s briefing. The state, Norman said, is seeing a jump in COVID-19 cases because of an increase in testing capacity and because of some commercial labs in the state that hadn’t been reporting any of their case results to KDHE.

Norman said Kansas has confirmed 45 COVID-19 clusters — outbreaks of two or more positive cases traced to one location.

Those clusters can be attributed to the following:

• 17 long-term care facilities, resulting in 348 cases and 58 deaths

• Two group living arrangements, resulting in 27 cases and no deaths

• One correctional facility in Lansing, resulting in 82 cases and no deaths

• Two health care facilities, resulting in 16 cases and no deaths

• Five religious gatherings, resulting in 85 cases and seven deaths

• 19 private company gatherings, resulting in 81 cases and no deaths

• Six meatpacking plants, resulting in 168 cases and no deaths

Kelly said there have been no discussions with companies yet about closing meatpacking plants, just how to protect their workers. In Iowa, Tyson Foods suspended operations Wednesday at its largest pork processing plant.

Kansas accounts for roughly a quarter of the nation’s beef production, and Kelly said the meat industry is “a very, very important supply chain that we need to keep as productive as we can.”

Statewide, Kansas had confirmed 2,211 cases of the respiratory virus as of Wednesday, an increase of 186 cases since Tuesday. A majority of those are likely from Lyon County, where 73 previously unknown cases were discovered from a commercial lab that had not been reporting its test results.

The state on Wednesday also confirmed three more deaths caused by the virus, bringing the state’s cumulative death toll to 110.

Kansas has now tested 20,203 residents for COVID-19. Of those, nearly 11% have tested positive — the highest rate in Kansas since the pandemic began. KDHE has also confirmed 432 hospitalizations due to the virus out of 1,816 cases where data is available. The hospitalization rate in the state has stayed constant, hovering between 23% and 24% for several weeks.

The state’s testing capacity will continue to increase over the coming weeks, as Kansas has invested in 3D printers to print the correct swabs needed to test for the virus. That will allow the state to produce 10,000 swabs per week for the next six weeks, Norman said, eliminating a hindrance Kansas had been facing since the outbreak began.

— The Associated Press contributed to this story.