Gov. Laura Kelly announced Wednesday that she will extend Kansas’ stay-at-home order through May 3. The existing order was set to expire Sunday at midnight.

Kansans are directed to stay home unless performing one of these “essential activities.”

• Obtaining food, medicine and other household necessities;
• Going to and from work at a business or organization performing an essential function as identified in the Kansas Essential Function Framework;
• Seeking medical care;
• Caring for children, family members or pets, or caring for a vulnerable person in another location;
• Engaging in an outdoor activity, provided individuals maintain a distance of six feet from one another and abide by the 10-person limitation on gathering size.

Kelly said Kansas now has 1,494 confirmed positive COVID-19 cases, up 68 from Tuesday. The state’s death count also rose by seven to 76.

“None of our internal projections indicate that Kansas will peak by April 19,” Kelly said. “Ideally, we need to see a reduciton in the number of cases for 14 days before we begin to relax social gathering restrictions.”

She said that between now and May 3, her administration will consult with business leaders, health experts, economists, and other industry and community leaders to determine the best path forward for reopening the economy “safely and effectively.”

“If we don’t do this right, then we will do more damage to the economy than we can imagine,” Kelly said.

“If we take it slow, cautiously, we’ll win that race.”