TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Legislature will focus on the fallout from the coronavirus when it reconvenes for a single day later this month to wrap up the 2020 session, a leading lawmaker said.
A panel of legislative leaders on Wednesday decided that lawmakers will return May 21. The truncated session is aimed at limiting exposure to COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
House Speaker Ron Ryckman, a Republican from Olathe, told the Topeka Capital-Journal that it appears no vote will take place on a proposed constitutional amendment on abortion. Ryckman said expansion of Medicaid will likely be discussed, but “we really need to work on what’s a want versus a need.”
Many issues had to be put aside when lawmakers were forced to vacate in mid-March as the pandemic began to worsen.
“There’s really nothing off the table, but we do want to focus on things that are in response to COVID-19,” Ryckman said of the upcoming session.
The virus and the steps taken to slow its spread have devastated the economy. There were 16,416 more Kansas workers who filed initial unemployment claims last week, up dramatically from 2,054 during the same week a year ago but down from the 27,663 new claims from two weeks ago, according to data from the Kansas Department of Labor.
The University of Kansas announced Wednesday that it plans to hold its tuition rates flat next school year to help ease students’ financial struggles caused by the pandemic.
“From our perspective, it is not tenable to ask students to pay more for a KU education when so many of them are managing financial challenges,” Chancellor Douglas Girod and two other university leaders said in a campus message.
The number of confirmed cases in Kansas climbed by 410 on Thursday, to 6,144, though the actual number of cases is thought to be higher because of limited testing and because people can be infected without feeling ill.
Kansas’ COVID-19 death toll rose by three, to 147, according to the state’s count.
Much of the rise comes efforts to test meatpacking workers and all of the inmates at the state’s largest prison, which is in Lansing. With 80% of testing completed on 1,716 inmates, 609 are positive, with 520 of them showing no symptoms and three deaths. Eighty-eight workers also are infected, and an effort to test all staff is expected to begin this week, said Rebecca Witte, the corrections department spokeswoman.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.
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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Legislature will focus on issues related to the coronavirus when it reconvenes for a single day later this month to wrap up the 2020 session, a leading lawmaker said.
A panel of legislative leaders on Wednesday decided that lawmakers will return May 21. The truncated session is aimed at limiting exposure to COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
House Speaker Ron Ryckman, a Republican from Olathe said that it appears no vote will take place on a proposed constitutional amendment on abortion. Ryckman said expansion of Medicaid will likely be discussed, but “we really need to work on what’a want versus a need.”
Many issues had to be put aside when lawmakers were forced to vacate in mid-March as the pandemic began to worsen.
“There’s really nothing off the table, but we do want to focus on things that are in response to COVID-19,” Ryckman said of the upcoming session.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.
The number of confirmed cases in Kansas reached 5,734 on Wednesday, up 276 from Tuesday. The actual number of cases is thought to be higher because of limited testing and because people can be infected without feeling ill.
Reported COVID-19-related deaths increased by seven to 144, according to the state’s count.