By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County Health Department Director Nick Baldetti has not spoken to the local legislative delegation after the revelation yesterday that action is planned to limit the powers of Governor Laura Kelly as part of their work next Thursday in Topeka.
"I haven't had specific conversations with our local representatives or senator with regard to the actions or communication having come out in the last day or two," Baldetti said. "That being said, our local delegation has been very active locally in terms of local issues in response to COVID-19."
Baldetti, for his part, would like to see decisions made closer to home on COVID-19 policy.
"I think there's an application of regional data metrics that can be used to inform our decision making," Baldetti said. "I would generally advocate for a much greater leveraging of home rule and the ability of local jurisdictions to monitor their environment."
Baldetti says we're still not testing enough to rely on data points alone, but he likes that more information is coming and thinks the modeling that is happening is getting better.
"We are getting to a point where we can, in some respects, begin to model, based off of the real data that we have to this point to inform moving forward," Baldetti said. "The more we get real data, the more informed our modeling out in to the future becomes."
Right now, still under 2% of Reno County residents have been tested for COVID-19.