Positive testing rate climbs as more COVID-19 cases are reported in Sedgwick County
Local public health officials reported more cases of COVID-19 but no new deaths on Tuesday.
The Sedgwick County Health Department’s coronavirus dashboard listed an increase of 55 cases from Monday, bringing the total to 1,652. Active cases increased by 27 to 857 and recoveries increased by 28 to 767.
There have been 28 COVID-19 deaths in the county. That count has not changed since June 25.
There have been 34,215 people tested, which is an increase of 429 from Monday.
The percentage of tests that come back positive also increased, which public health officials have said is evidence that the increase in cases is not due to an increase in testing. The jump is about one and a half percentage points in two days.
The positive test percentage is 8.7% for Monday, the most recent day with data available on the rolling 14-day average positive test percentage. The percentage was 8.2% for Sunday and 7.27% on Saturday.
The percentage is the highest it has been since May 2, when it was 10.89%. The value dropped below 1% on May 26 and May 27, when the state and local economies were reopened without pandemic restrictions. The percentage has steadily increased since then.
In other coronavirus pandemic news:
States add Kansas to quarantine list
People who travel from Kansas will have to quarantine for 14 days when they arrive in New York or New Jersey, the northeastern states announced Tuesday. Kansas and Oklahoma were added to the list because they have a positive test rate higher than 10 cases per 100,000 people or a positivity rate of 10% or higher over a 7-day rolling average.
Sebelius signs letter on national coronavirus response
Kathleen Sebelius was the first signatory on a letter from a bipartisan group of former government scientists and health officials advocating for a science-based response to the pandemic. Sebelius is the former governor of Kansas and was secretary of Health and Human Services under President Barack Obama.
“Research and data must inform production and allocation decisions for vital supplies such as personal protective equipment and ventilators; basic accounting for new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths; and plans to develop vaccines and treatments,” the letter states, in part. “Science should steer decision-making and policy, even as our elected leaders weigh competing priorities.”
“To save lives, we must let science guide us and let scientists speak,” the letter continues. “Congress must more rigorously oversee the pandemic response and any attempts at political inference in scientific decision-making, while federal inspectors general must be allowed to conduct their oversight functions without fear of retaliation. Data from our federal agencies must be more accessible to outside experts, and the processes generating data on the pandemic more transparent.”
The full letter is available online at https://medium.com/@FmrGovScientistsnOfficials/statement-from-former-gov-bcf9dc631f7d.
This story was originally published July 7, 2020 at 3:28 PM.