LAWRENCE, Kan. — As the number of COVID-19 cases soars in Douglas County, health officials have decided to shut down bars and nightclubs for at least two weeks.
Douglas County Health Officer Dr. Thomas Marcellino ordered the establishments to close by 12:01 a.m. on Friday.
Marcellino looked at the data and linked the spike to the reopening of certain businesses.
"What we’re seeing here locally is a large amount of cases that are being linked to bars, and what we’ve seen nationally is that bars are really a problem mainly because of the indoor environment and of the socializing that's occurring without masks," Marcellino said.
One example is a COVID-19 outbreak at the Jayhawk Cafe, where several people who tested positive for the virus had visited.
While some bars had reopened, others have remained close since shutting down in mid-March.
"I’m pretty frail at the moment,” said business owner Mike Logan.
Logan owns a few businesses, including Granada and The Bottleneck. Because they are live venues and for the safety of everyone involved, he hasn’t reopened.
"I went from north of 80 employees to three in the matter of six to eight weeks, and that’s really hard,” Logan said.
He agrees the mandate should happen to slow the spread and urges everyone to wear a mask so that Lawrence can get back to normal more quickly.
"If you're playing by the rules and holding your guest or clients accountable, I think there’s a lot of people that are doing a really great job," Logan said. "Probably some of them weren’t, and it takes everyone or we're just not going to slow this thing down."
"We want to do the best we can to control the virus. Until that time, we have a good chance of having a normal, semi-normal, new-normal school year,” Marcellino said.
The order can be expanded past two weeks, according to Marcellino, if the number of COVID-19 cases does not drop.
