TOPEKA, Kan. – Topeka City Manager Brent Trout said masks will still be required in city of Topeka buildings until at least May 14.
Trout previously said the mandate could end around May 1 but extended the deadline a few weeks to allow city employees to become fully vaccinated.
Many city employees were vaccinated at a vaccine clinic and need the additional time to become fully vaccinated, Trout said at a Tuesday mayor and city manager news conference.
“We will obviously request people continue to use masks when they are in city buildings as we go forward, but the requirement I think will be removed once we get past the 14 of May,” Trout said.
He added some meetings could require masks depending on capacity.
COVID-19 numbers in Shawnee County have dropped with multiple days between April 13-25 only registering single-digit case counts, according to the Shawnee County Health Department’s COVID-19 dashboard. There were only two cases of COVID-19 reported on April 25.
Topeka Mayor Michelle De La Isla encouraged everyone to get their vaccine and said her vaccination “was like magic.” De La Isla was diagnosed with COVID-19 in January and said she struggled with symptoms for months.
“I cannot over-encourage you enough to consider having the vaccine,” she said. “I don’t know what it did to my immune system, but everything that I had that was latent, that would not go away, has gone away.”
