The Shawnee County Health Department is recommending people regardless of vaccination status wear masks in crowded “indoor situations.”
Health officer Erin Locke further recommends indoor events be capped at 50% capacity and small groups, indoors or outdoors, should be limited to 10 people if social distancing can’t be achieved.
“Shawnee County has seen 5 consecutive weeks of increasing cases, percent positivity and hospitalizations,” the department’s health order said. “These increases continue to be driven by the emergence of the Delta variant in our community, which is 60% more contagious than previous variants."
The recent ruling that Senate Bill 40 is unconstitutional has given local municipalities the authority to mandate restrictions again, but Locke’s health order isn’t set to be voted on by the Shawnee County Commission on Thursday. The commission's preliminary agenda has no items from the health department, but there is discussion on the county’s soon-to-be-defunct COVID-19 incident command team.