Coronavirus updates: Kansas cases number 2,025 with 251 in Sedgwick County

Here is the Wichita-area news to know on the coronavirus pandemic for Tuesday, April 21. For updates from Monday, click here.

New coronavirus numbers

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reports 2,025 confirmed cases of COVID-19 statewide and 107 deaths. At least 419 patients have been hospitalized.

Sedgwick County has had 2,513 people tested, and 251 people have tested positive. The local testing rate is 4.87 people per 1,000 population.

In the Wichita area, Reno County has 14 cases, Butler County has 12, Harvey County has five, Sumner County has three, Cowley County has one and Kingman County has zero.

There have been 17,076 negative tests in the state.

The Sedgwick County Health Department report, which comes out after the KDHE report, listed 283 cases and five deaths in the county. A spokesperson said the fifth death was not connected to a cluster at a Clearwater nursing home.

There have been 132 local patients who have recovered.

WSU Tech freeze tuition, wave online fees for summer

WSU Tech announced a tuition freeze, increased online classes being offered, waiving online fees and offering discounted tuition for high school juniors, seniors and graduating seniors. All of WSU Tech’s general education courses will be offered online during summer. A list of classes is available at wsutech.edu/gened.

New Kansas flu numbers

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reports 135 people with influenza have died so far this flu season, up five deaths from last week. In the weekly update statistics released on Monday, the KDHE reported 107 deaths were directly caused by the flu, and the flu was a contributing cause of death in another 28 cases.

The death count for the 2019-20 flu season has surpassed the 97 people who died in the last flu season, which runs from Sept. 1 to May 31. The percentage of total patients at Kansas health care facilities with influenza-like illness peaked in February.

The World Health Organization director general said last month that coronavirus causes a more severe disease than seasonal influenza and the death rate of infected patients is much higher. Additionally, there are vaccines and treatments for the flu, but not for COVID-19.

This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 12:16 PM.