The health and safety of the Lawrence community is our top priority at the City of Lawrence. Conditions are changing rapidly, and we want to assure you that city officials are closely monitoring the latest information about coronavirus (COVID-19).

The local, regional and national experts that will continue to help guide us include the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health and the Center for Disease Control (CDC). We encourage our residents to refer to these online sources for the most current and accurate information:

Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health is maintaining an updated COVID-19 web page, which provides current local information and answers to FAQs

KDHE is maintaining an online COVID-19 Resource Center with information about Kansas, the region and the nation

The CDC has information on this page: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

To centralize City-related information regarding coronavirus, we have created a dedicated page on the City website: lawrenceks.org/coronavirus. We will do our best to keep this web page updated with our latest news, including postponed and canceled City events, as quickly as possible. (Please note that the City web page is specific to City-related information. For health-related information, please refer to the agencies listed above.)

We will also continue to share City updates via news releases, which are posted on our news web page: lawrenceks.org/news. Residents can also subscribe to receive City news releases. Go to lawrenceks.org/subscriptions and check the box next to City News (under the ‘CITY’ section). Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the webpage and click ‘Subscribe’ to confirm your subscription.

At this time, we have decided to proceed with canceling a number of non-essential city-coordinated events and activities. Those canceled events and activities will include:

Postponing or canceling Parks & Recreation programs, trips and classes that place vulnerable populations such as the elderly and/or those with underlying medical conditions at greater risk. The Parks & Recreation department will notify directly those already enrolled in these classes.

The Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical Department is suspending all public education events and station tours until further notice.

Tours of water and waste water facilities through the Municipal Services and Operations Department are postponed until further notice.

The 2020 Census Informational Meeting scheduled for March 19 at Lawrence Public Library is canceled.

Additional City event and program cancellations will be communicated on our Coronavirus webpage: lawrenceks.org/coronavirus. The City will refer to guidance from the aforementioned health and safety authorities to inform our decisions. We strongly encourage other community organizations to follow the same guidance.

Contact: Porter Arneill, Director of Communications & Creative Resources

parneill@lawrenceks.org | 785-832-3402