Wichita hospitals report they have seen their peak of COVID-19 patients, according to Sedgwick County's local Health Officer Dr. Garold Minns.

Minns made note of the information Friday morning during a special staff meeting the county held with local business leaders.

"The hospitals think they have seen the peak, although the peak is very flat. They’re feeling good about the fact that we’re not going to have a huge surge and I think they are feeling more comfortable that we can move ahead now," said Dr. Minns.

The Kansas Department Health and Environment said the state was expected to hit its peak for cases between April 19 and April 29.

Gov. Laura Kelly pushed back a statewide stay-at-home order to May 3 to accommodate those dates.

Dr. Minns likened the state's reopening to that of a patient recovering from an injury. He said this pandemic is a traumatic injury and we're going to have to recover slowly, reopening in stages. This is why Sedgwick County met with industry leaders Friday morning to find out what that might look like.

Kelly's order could expire a week from Sunday (May 3) and Kansas Lieutenant Governor Lynn Rogers says counties likely will be left to their own plans for reopening.

"That's probably what will happen is that counties will be allowed to do some things individually. They can continue to keep things clamped down, or they can start opening things up," Rogers says.

Sedgwick County commissioners called on representatives from several industries to find out their plans to open up while keeping everyone as safe as possible.

"It's easy to control how many people come through our doors based on the amount of seating that we allow and if we come up with a safe, effective way to reopen parts of our restaurants, I think that this is a doable plan within the next couple weeks," says Monarch Distillery Owner Jennifer Ray.

Representatives from Wichita State University, Wichita City Tourism and the YMCA are among groups offering cautiously-optimistic plans to reopen safely so they can then stay open.

"We've been on some calls with similar folks in China and their advice to us was, 'do not open too soon,' because if you do and you have a problem, it is so much harder to come back from that," Greater Wichita YMCA CEO Ronn McMahon.

Sedgwick County says it'll come up with guidelines for businesses next week, but those may have to vary business to business to be effective.