KANSAS CITY, Mo. — On Thursday, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas announced he is extending the stay-at-home order until Friday, May 15.

Mayor Lucas joined FOX4 on Thursday morning to explain what led to his decision.

“The idea that our area health directors had said that (the extension) was important for us. They noted that this is based on medical advice. They want to make sure that we’re to a point where we can do adequate tracing throughout our community,” he said during an interview with FOX4’s Abby Eden and Nick Vasos.

The mayor added that he thinks the city needs to do more testing and would like to see the increases in testing seen in Johnson County go metro wide. He also said that the city needs to understand where new infections are coming form, whether it is from grabbing a door handle or some kind of community spread, an answer that’s currently unknown.

The extension announced Thursday morning doesn’t yet apply to the Core 4 of Kansas City, Mo., Jackson County, Johnson County, Kan., and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan., but it may soon.

Kansas Governor Laura Kelly extended her state’s order to May 3 on Wednesday, and Missouri Governor Mike Parson is currently considering extending his state’s order, a decision he may announce later on Thursday.

The city’s current stay-at-home order was set to expire on April 24, but will now continue for another three weeks to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

As of Wednesday night, Kansas City has 371 positive cases of COVID-19 and 12 deaths related to the virus.

Kansas City leaders are asking residents to continue only doing essential activities and refrain from any gatherings larger than 10 people. Additionally, all non-essential businesses should remain closed during this time.

Here’s a list of what counts as essential activities and essential businesses.

Schools in all of Kansas and Missouri are closed for the rest of the year, and districts have shifted to remote learning.

Both Missouri and Kansas are still under statewide stay-at-home orders to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.

These orders supersede those at the county level for the duration of the state order, unless the orders allow for tighter restrictions by local municipalities.

Missouri

On Friday, April 3, Gov. Mike Parson announced a statewide stay-at-home order, banning all non-essential activities and closing all non-essential businesses.

The order was as a major reversal of his stance, preferring to let local municipalities decide what is best.

The order began on Monday, April 6 and currently runs through Friday, April 24.

The governor has not yet said whether he will extend the statewide order, but on Wednesday, April 15, he said his decision was imminent.

He will hold his daily news conference at 3 p.m. Thursday, April 16, where he is expected to speak more on the subject. You can watch that live on fox4kc.com.

Kansas

On Saturday, March 28, Gov. Laura Kelly announced a statewide stay-at-home order, banning all non-essential activities and closing all non-essential businesses.

The order began on Monday, March 30 and was initially set to expire on Sunday, April 19.

But on Wednesday, April 15, Kelly announced she will extend the order until midnight on Sunday, May 3.

On March 17, she announced that all the schools in the state would switch to distance learning for the rest of the year, becoming the first state in the country to do so.