KANSAS CITY, Mo. — While reopening plans vary throughout the Kansas City metro, health experts say people have “social distancing fatigue” in common.
“Unfortunately, the fatigue is real and people can only hear it so long until they just start to not hear it anymore," said Juliann Van Liew, director of public health for the Unified Government Public Health Department.
After weeks of stay-at-home orders, Van Liew said it seems people tossed social distancing and mask wearing to the side.
“Our numbers are really going in the wrong direction, and so we’re trying to kind of come back to the community and ask for them to buy into this again with us,” Van Liew said.
This week, Wyandotte County announced the extension of Phase 3 of its reopening plan through at least July 6.
“Our rates of infection and just our number of cases remain higher than just about everybody else’s in the metro, despite our best efforts,” Van Liew said.
Behavioral health experts told 41 Action News the fatigue is being felt everywhere
“People are really frustrated with the whole thing,” said Monty Miller with Saint Luke’s Health System.
The loss of a routine and human interaction are what’s causing anxiety and depression in many. Miller said taking things one day at a time can help.
“Just take it one day at a time; don’t look way down the road because we’re going to create what we call 'anticipatory anxiety,'" Miller said. "We’ll worry about a lot of things that haven’t happened yet."
As the rates of infection and number of cases in Wyandotte County remain higher than most in the metro, Van Liew said she’s hopeful everyone will do their part.
“I don’t know that we ever got low enough for us to now be in the second wave, but regardless, we’re in a wave and it’s not slowing down unfortunately,” Van Liew said.
