Coronavirus updates: Kansas reports 3 more deaths, 260 new cases

Public health officials reported on Memorial Day that three more people have died of COVID-19 in Kansas .

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment coronavirus pandemic report showed an increase of 260 COVID-19 cases and three deaths on Monday, bringing the totals to 9,218 cases and 188 deaths. The increases are since the last KDHE report on Friday.

The 537 cases reported by the KDHE in Sedgwick County is an increase of 14.

The Sedgwick County Health Department reports 559 cases, which is an increase of three from Sunday. Discrepancies between county and state numbers can be due to confirmed cases from one health department not yet being finalized with the other, officials have said.

There was no change in the county’s death count, which held steady at 21. Another two local patients have recovered, bringing the total to 409. A person is considered to have recovered from COVID-19 if symptoms have been gone for three days or if 10 days have passed since symptoms started, whichever is longer.

There have been 72,181 negative tests statewide.

The KDHE reports there have been 10,249 tests administered in Sedgwick County, putting the local testing rate at 19.9 per 1,000 residents. The statewide testing rate is 27.89 per 1,000 people. Sedgwick County has the lowest testing rate of the nine counties with at least 100 cases.

The other eight are Ford County with 1,607 cases, Finney County with 1,413, Wyandotte County with 1,310, Leavenworth County with 1,065, Seward County with 822, Johnson County with 765, Lyon County with 379 and Shawnee County with 265.

In the Wichita area, Reno County has 52 cases, Butler County has 29, Harvey County has 13, Sumner County has six, Cowley County has four and Kingman County has zero.

Cases have been identified in 88 of the state’s 105 counties.

There have been at least 800 hospitalizations across the state, but hospitalization data is only available in about 66% of cases. There have been 271 patients admitted to intensive care units, and 120 patients have required mechanical ventilation. There have been 493 patients discharged from hospitals.

Patients, both hospitalized and those not hospitalized, have ranged in age from infant to 103 years old, with a median 41 and an average of 43. The youngest patient to die of COVID-19 in Kansas was 36 years old. The oldest was 99, and the median age is 80.

Racial and ethnic minorities continue to be disproportionately affected by the virus and disease.

Race data is available in about 80% of cases. Of those, Asians are testing positive at a rate of about 536 per 100,000 people. The rate for blacks or African Americans is about 427 per 100,000, the white community has a case rate of about 220 per 100,000, American Indians or Alaska natives are testing positive at a rate of about 83 per 100,000 and other races have a case rate of about 242 per 100,000.

Ethnicity data is available in about 82% of cases. The Hispanic or Latino community has a case rate of about 11.15 per 100,000. All other ethnic groups have a positive testing rate of 1.43 per 100,000.

This story was originally published May 25, 2020 at 1:31 PM.