Coronavirus updates: College and university outbreaks rise from 7 to 16 in two days

COVID-19 outbreaks, or clusters, at Kansas universities and colleges rose from 7 to 16 since Wednesday, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s Friday report. Additionally, the outbreaks have led to the first reported hospitalization. Kansas universities started fall classes in the past couple of weeks.

The University of Kansas reported 474 positive cases, including 464 students. It has tested 21,719 people for a positive rate of 2.18%, while the KU Greek community is 10.01%. KU required all of its students to be tested before classes started this week.

Kansas State University, Pittsburg State University, Bethel College and other Kansas high education institutions have also reported multiple cases. Wichita State University reported one employee tested positive back in May.

Across the country, higher education institutions have seen more than 26,000 cases and 64 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, according to a survey by The New York Times published this week. The survey — of more than 1,500 colleges and universities, including every four-year public institution — showed there have been cases at roughly a dozen Kansas institutions.

Kansas COVID-19 numbers

The KDHE also reported Friday a COVID-19 increase of 1,111 cases and six deaths, bringing the totals to 41,048 and 443.

On May 13, the KDHE went from reporting daily numbers to Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The two other reports this week were both in the 1,500s — the two highest under the new reporting system.

But health officials say hospitalizations, deaths and percent of positive cases are better indicators of community spread than new cases, which can rise with additional testing. Hospitalizations and deaths have both trended down in the Aug. 9-23 period, the dates where data is available.

Hospitalizations trended from roughly 17 a day to about seven during the allotted time. Deaths went from about 3.5 to 2.

Available data on the percent of positive cases goes back to May 31. It’s mostly trended up through mid-July before starting to level off.

Of the new cases reported, Sedgwick County saw an increase of 101, bringing the total to 7,093. Sedgwick County has reported 50 total deaths.

The Sedgwick County dashboard listed an increase of 40 cases on Friday, for a total of 6,709.

Discrepancies in the Sedgwick County case totals between the state and local health departments can be due to a delay in reporting between the agencies.

This story was originally published August 28, 2020 at 4:57 PM.