Hospital leaders in the Kansas City area are anticipated to call for new mask mandates, a hospital executive said, according to a July 22 report by The Kansas City Star.
The Kansas City-based University of Kansas Health System's CMO, Steve Stites, MD, said hospitals are being confronted with too many patients and a limited number of hospital beds.
"We are past the tipping point. We are in trouble," Mr. Stites said at a July 22 news briefing.
Mr. Stites said he spoke with other CMOs in the Kansas City area July 22 and they were in agreement that mask mandates need to be renewed.
"I think you are going to find the chief medical officers are going to call for a reinstitution of the mask mandates and social distancing because we had that discussion this morning and we were all in favor of it because we're in trouble in the hospitals," Mr. Stites said.
The CDC said fully vaccinated people do not need to wear masks in most situations. Kansas City lifted its own mask mandate in May. However, vaccination levels are lower in Missouri than the national average, and COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state are among the highest in the nation.