Coronavirus updates: Sedgwick County reports more recoveries, no new hospitalizations
Following a week of no new hospitalizations in Wichita for COVID-19 patients, local public health officials report a continued decline in active coronavirus cases.
The Sedgwick County Health Department’s coroanvirus pandemic report for Tuesday showed one new coronavirus case while two more patients have recovered from COVID-19.
With 560 total cases, 21 deaths and 411 recoveries, there are 128 active cases in the community. Tuesday’s data continue a downward trend in the number of active cases, which peaked at 199 on May 1.
The current number is a small increase from the 124 active cases reported on Thursday. Before that, the last time Sedgwick County had fewer active cases was the middle of April, with 127 on April 14.
A patient is considered to have recovered from COVID-19 when they have been without symptoms for at least three days or once 10 days have passed since symtoms started, whichever is longer.
No new COVID-19 hospitalization were reported in Sedgwick County for the week of May 17-23, and three patients were discharged. It marks the first week since March 22-28 without a new hospitalization. Between March 22 and May 23, there have been 105 hospitalizations and 94 discharges.
There is a delay in hospitalization data to ensure accuracy, according to the report.
The number of total cases in Sedgwick County has also appeared to start leveling off. Since a combined spike of 56 new cases over May 12 and May 13, there hasn’t been a day with a double digit increase.
Of the 560 total cases, about 65% had close contact with another confirmed case. About 8% were infected while traveling. About 24% of cases are believed to be community spread, and the remaining approximately 3% of case are still being investigated.
The county’s map for COVID-19 cases, tests and testing rate by ZIP code was updated with new data from the past week. The map is on the county’s COVID-19 dashboard, which is available at www.sedgwickcounty.org/covid-19/.