Sedgwick County removes active cases and recovery data from COVID-19 dashboard
The Sedgwick County Health Department is no longer reporting active cases of COVID-19 or recoveries from the coronavirus disease in the Wichita area.
The decision to remove the data from the county’s online COVID-19 dashboard was made because health department staff are too busy to determine whether patients have recovered and because medical experts have determined some people continue to experience long-term symptoms after they were thought to have recovered.
“The original intent and goal of the Sedgwick County dashboard is to provide the community with a landscape of general data that can be viewed to determine the spread and impact of the virus,” public information officer Kate Flavin said in a news release. “Some community members are focusing on certain aspects of the dashboard and criticizing the exactness and accuracy of these numbers, thus Sedgwick County will make every effort to remove those types of data as the pandemic continues to remain focused on the spread and impact to our community.”
As of Monday’s report, there were 2,743 active cases of COVID-19 in the community. There had been 2,615 recoveries. The data was removed by Tuesday’s update.
The number of active cases in the community had been calculated by subtracting recoveries and deaths from the total case count. Because of accuracy concerns with the number of recovered patients, the validity of the active case count was also questioned.
In late July, County Manager Tom Stolz said county officials were considering removing the two numbers because of a lag in reporting recoveries. The delay was attributed to epidemiologists having little time to follow-up with patients to determine whether they had recovered.
County Health Director Adrienne Byrne had said the disease investigators were so “overwhelmed” with new cases that they stopped contact tracing. Public health officer Dr. Garold Minns warned of that on July 2, when county commissioners first rejected the governor’s mask order.
As of Tuesday, about 46% of all confirmed COVID-19 cases were still under investigation by epidemiologists for the source of coronavirus exposure.
Flavin said in Tuesday’s announcement that health department staff are focused on providing “the large number of positive cases” with their test results.
“The number of cases does not currently allow adequate time to monitor cases to determine or verify what day they have recovered,” she said.
The validity of counting recoveries had also been questioned because the medical community has identified patients who were considered recovered, but are now experiencing long-term health issues, Flavin said. Termed “long haulers,” those patients may experience mild to severe kidney and heart issues, as well as blood clotting, due to their COVID-19 infection. The group also included patients who have not recovered from their initial symptoms after a long period of time.
“Thus, calling someone recovered could change over a time period making any recovery data difficult to define,” Flavin said.
Questions with the accuracy of the recovery numbers were not the only reason active cases were also questioned.
“Medical professionals all agree there are many more active cases in the community than what is being reported to government,” Flavin said.
“Our best estimate right now is that for every case that was reported, there actually were 10 other infections,” said Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to National Public Radio.
Tuesday’s numbers from the county’s dashboard showed 31 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the cumulative total to 5,436. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment on Monday reported 6,102 total cases in Sedgwick County.
Sedgwick County did not report any new deaths, keeping the tally at 47. There have been 67,048 people tested, which was an increase of 263 from Monday to Tuesday.
Of the 31 new cases, only one has a known source of exposure. That patient was a close contact of another confirmed case. The other 30 are still under investigation.
The positive test percentage was recorded at 10.03% for Monday, which is the most recent data available. Monday’s report of 11.37% for Sunday was revised down to 10.17%. The numbers are a rolling 14-day average.
The last numbers on active cases and recoveries in Monday’s report from the county health department listed 2,743 active cases and 2,615 recoveries. The data was removed in Tuesday’s update.
After a peak of 178 active cases on April 29 during the first months of the pandemic, the number declined to 117 on May 25, which was two days before the local economy reopened without restrictions.
That number increased by 1,971% over the next two months, hitting 2,423 active cases on July 25. The rate of increase was about 38 more active cases every day.
The rate of increase slowed in late July, and the first half of August saw active cases remain relatively stable. On average, there was an increase of about 1.7 active cases each day before the numbers were removed.
The stabilization of active cases was due in part to an increase in the number of reported recoveries, as well as a decrease in the new cases reported each day.
Local active cases have outnumbered recoveries since July 5, though the recovery number had been closing the gap recently. Prior to July 5, recoveries had outnumbered active cases since April 19.