Coronavirus updates: Sedgwick County trending up in active cases, percent positive
The number of active coronavirus cases — and the percentage of positive cases — continue to rise in Sedgwick County.
On Saturday, the Sedgwick County Health Department reported an additional 80 cases, bringing the total to 2,553.
Sedgwick County’s dashboard also showed active cases increased by 53 to hit a record high Friday with 1,478. Active cases are cases minus recoveries and deaths. For the most part, that number had increased slowly from the end of May until around June 21, when it started to climb steeply.
During a 27-day period from May 26 to June 21, active cases rose from 117 to 274, a 134% increase. In the 21 days since then, active cases rose from 274 to 1,478, a roughly 439% increase.
During the last 21 days, the percentage of positive cases has also increased nearly threefold — to 11.11% on Friday. It hadn’t been above 11% since May 1.
Sedgwick County had percent positive highs of roughly 12.1% and 11.8% on April 19 and April 28. A couple days later, the percentage of positive cases started to drop sharply, to under 1% on May 27. It has been climbing ever since.
The percentage of positive cases is one way of indicating community spread, health officials have said. Deaths and hospitalizations are other indicators.
Sedgwick County has had four deaths in July, or about one every 4.5 days. Sedgwick County’s first death was reported on March 30, meaning there has been a death once every roughly 3.4 days since the first death was reported.
Sedgwick County has had a total of 32 deaths, all of people over the age of 50; 27 deaths have been tied to a long-term care facility.
Hospitalizations are becoming a problem in Sedgwick County, Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple told CNN on Thursday.
“Right now, it’s not just about capacity when it comes to beds, it’s also ... about staff. It’s about making sure we have enough medication,” Whipple told CNN. “We’re doing well here in Wichita at the moment but we need people to have their masks on, to be looking out for one another so we can do what we can to stop the spread so our hospitals don’t wind up in the situation that some other hospitals have wound up throughout the country.”
Whipple tweeted Monday that he just gotten off the phone with hospital administrators and COVID-19 patient admissions were the highest they’ve been. If the numbers continue at the same rate, Whipple said, hospitals will reach their capacity in two to three weeks or sooner if there is a jump in cases from July 4 weekend.
It can take up to two weeks for symptoms to appear.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reports figures on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The latest report listed 21,965 cases and 299 deaths.
Kansas, along with 17 other states, was marked as a “red zone” in a White House document released this week. The designation is based on cases above 100 per 100,000 population from the prior week. Sedgwick County was one of 10 Kansas counties that fell in the red zone.