Kansas will now release locations of coronavirus clusters, citing start of school year
State public health officials will begin to release the names and locations of active coronavirus clusters, citing the start of the school year.
“With our children returning to school, sports resuming, and college campuses reopening — we’re seeing the largest increase in outbreaks to date,” Gov. Laura Kelly said in a news release. “By sharing where the outbreaks take place, Kansans will be better informed about the threat of COVID-19 in their schools and communities, and will be better prepared to contain and stop the spread of the virus.”
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment will have weekly reports starting Sept. 9 that contain the information on the mass COVID-19 outbreaks. It will also include the number of cases associated with each cluster.
“Last week, Kansas saw the highest increase in outbreaks to date, with an increase of 26 from Wednesday to Friday, and ended the week with 170 active outbreaks,” the governor’s statement read.
Locations of active clusters will be released when there are five or or more confirmed cases. Names of private businesses will be released if there are 20 or more cases at the location. Kansas health officials define an outbreak as two or more cases associated with one known exposure.
The state had mainly left the decision to local officials on whether to publicly identify clusters, though state officials had named locations of outbreaks when contract tracing was not possible. In Sedgwick County, the health department has named nursing homes with outbreaks, but not many other clusters, especially those at businesses or religious facilities.
The KDHE’s COVID-19 report for Wednesday listed 1,328 new cases and 12 new deaths since Monday. The totals increased to 43,940 cases and 458 deaths.
There were 57 new hospitalizations, bringing the total to 2,361. An additional 4,670 negative tests were reported, putting the total at 375,307 negative tests.
The KDHE has found nine more coronavirus clusters, raising the total to 528. The number of active clusters remained 178. The four more deaths were attributed to the mass outbreaks, all of which were connected to nursing homes. There have been 294 total cluster deaths with 233 of those at nursing homes.
There were five new clusters at colleges or universities and three more at group homes. There were new outbreaks at a sporting event, a nursing home, a private business and a religious gathering.
The daycare category had one fewer cluster and the private events category had two fewer clusters as those outbreaks were reclassified to other categories.
The KDHE reported 93 new cases over two days in Sedgwick County, raising the county total to 7,399.
The Sedgwick County Health Department reported 45 new cases in one day, putting its tally at 6,970. Discrepancies between the state and local case counts can be due to delays in reporting. Additionally, the county health department only includes confirmed cases.
The county did not report any new deaths, keeping the number at 50. There were an additional 703 people tested, raising the total to 80,836.
The positive test percentage continues to decline, hitting 8.05% for Tuesday. The rolling 14-day average has been below 10% for about a week.
This story was originally published September 2, 2020 at 12:36 PM.