Sedgwick County in worst COVID crisis since pandemic began, health officer Minns says
Sedgwick County and Kansas are in the worst shape they’ve been since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, with hospitals being overwhelmed, vaccination rates stagnating, and residents and businesses almost universally ignoring recommendations to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and its variants, the county’s health officer said Wednesday.
“I want you to know we are at the point we had all hoped would never occur,” Dr. Garold Minns told county commissioners on Wednesday morning. “Ever since this pandemic started we were hoping to avoid this situation, but we are at a crisis.
“We had all hoped by two years this thing would be over. It’s not over. It’s just beginning.”
It was the most pessimistic report yet from Minns, who in addition to serving the county is also the dean of the University of Kansas Medical School in Wichita.
“The number of cases of COVID has rapidly risen in the last week,” Minns said. “The number of positive cases in Sedgwick County has gone up dramatically in the last week. The hospitals are at capacity for staffed beds and we have high numbers of staff who are off work because of illness or quarantine.”
The KU hospital system alone had more than 700 employees out Wednesday, up by 100 from the day before, he said.
At the same time, the flu season is starting, which usually generates a large number of patients — especially children — needing hospital care. Whether they’ll be able to get that care is in serious question, Minns said.
“We have not seen the peak of influenza and we don’t think we’ve seen the peak of COVID,” Minns said, “So we’re already at the crisis level and we anticipate the numbers will continue to rise for the next few weeks. So we’re in a very serious position.”
Minns blamed much of the increase on rising indifference to public health measures that were once mandatory, such as masking in public and social distancing.
Last year, the state Legislature stripped the governor and county health officers of practically all authority to issue mandates to try to slow the spread of COVID.
At present, no health orders are in effect in the county. Compliance with voluntary recommendations is practically nonexistent, Minns said.
“I think most of us agree that most of the public health interventions that we’ve been recommending for two years are not being adhered to at this point,” Minns said. “Hardly anyone in any of the communities across the state is masking, hardy anyone is doing social distancing . . . there’s no attempt by businesses to keep the checkout stands distanced.”
Minns offered his own example of going to the post office to mail packages just before the Christmas holiday.
“There was absolutely no physical distancing, the line was face-to-back, face-to-back,” he said.
Before Minns spoke, Deputy County Manager Tim Kaufman reported that the county’s COVID vaccination rate has plateaued with only about half of county residents fully vaccinated, either with the two-shot Pfizer and Moderna regimens or the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
A meager 17% have gotten third or booster shots, believed to offer the best protection against the Delta and Omicron variants.
Minns blamed the low rate on the concerted anti-vaccination campaigns that are spreading unfounded fear on social media and elsewhere.
“I’m very frustrated about why so many people are just absolutely not going to get it,” Minns said. “I’m afraid there’s this feeling by many out there that the vaccine is . . . unsafe. We struggle with what to do to dismiss that fear.”
Adding to the concern is that the Omicron variant is just starting to get a foothold in Kansas, Minns said.
Indications are that most Omicron victims will likely not get as sick as they would from classic COVID-19 or the Delta variant, which is creating a false sense of security, Minns said.
“People should not be reassured by the fact that (Omicron) is not as likely, per person, to cause critical illness,” Minns said. “It is so much more contagious that the actual number of patients who will be critically ill is probably about the same as Delta (variant).”
This story was originally published January 5, 2022 at 12:02 PM with the headline "Sedgwick County in worst COVID crisis since pandemic began, health officer Minns says."
