Governor Laura Kelly on Wednesday signed an Executive Order requiring COVID-19 testing in state-licensed adult care facilities.
The order contains similar language to August’s order requiring regular testing of residents and staff at federal centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Kelly said this order aims to enhance efforts to keep COVID-19 from entering and spreading through nursing homes.
The 473 state-licensed facilities in Kansas must conduct regular testing of staff and residents; the frequency of which is dependent upon a county’s current testing positivity rate.
For counties with a 5% positive test result rate, facilities are required to conduct COVID-19 tests once per month. For counties with a positivity rate of 5% to 10%, they are required to test once per week. And for counties with a positivity rate of 10% or higher, testing must be done twice per week.
The order goes into effect on Monday, December 14th.
