In a press release issued Friday, Governor Laura Kelly said she submitted a letter to the Legislative Coordinating Council urging the state of disaster emergency declaration be extended.
The council has shown resistance to an extension, with many criticizing Kelly of not having an “exit strategy.” The disaster declaration is set to expire on July 15th.
In the letter, the Governor included several priorities and objectives which would require an extension of the disaster declaration.
Kelly stressed the importance of school-aged children being vaccinated in order to resume normal school activities in the fall. She cited that as of June 11th, about 20.1% of children aged 12 to 17 have been vaccinated. Kelly added that current projections indicate that between 42-49% of this age group will be vaccinated by the end of August. Without an extension of the declaration, she said these efforts could be stalled or impeded.
Kelly also said that the extension of the declaration is needed in order to continue supporting the distribution and administration of COVID-19 vaccine through mobile clinics, saying these efforts are directly tied to the declaration. Kelly said that provisions of the Executive Order allow the use of contract nurses who are able to administer vaccinations more easily.
Another issue Kelly addressed was that without the declaration extension, many vulnerable Kansans would lose the emergency allotment of SNAP benefits the federal government provides to states with active COVID-19 emergency responses. Approximately 63,000 Kansas households would be affected by a loss of this additional financial support.
Governor Kelly did say that while some of the elements of the state’s emergency response from last summer are no longer essential, the disaster declaration itself still is in order to continue on with recovery efforts uninterrupted.
You can read the full letter here.