65 Kansas counties have so many new cases of COVID-19 that they are in the red zone

Kansas has 65 counties with so many new cases of COVID-19 that their incidence rates have moved into the red zone of the school reopening guide.

Only seven of the 105 counties in the state had a green zone rate of new cases compared to population.

The county numbers are based on a map published on Monday by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The map shows the county incidence rates, which are a measure of new coronavirus cases over the past two weeks compared to 100,000 population.

The rate of new cases is one of five school reopening indicators in a color-coded guide from the Kansas State Department of Education. The red zone is the most serious of the pandemic, suggesting that schools should close to all in-person classes and stop sports practices and games.

Local school boards are not required to follow the state’s gating criteria, though many use it as a guide or used it to create their own guides.

In the Wichita area, six of seven counties had an incidence rate in the red zone. The two-week rates use COVID-19 statistics through Saturday.

In Sedgwick County, the rate has worsened since schools reopened after Labor Day. The current rate is 153 new cases per 100,000 residents, which is in the red zone. The previous rate, as of Sept. 19, was in the orange zone with 143 new cases.

While the school reopening criteria is a two-week rate, the KDHE releases weekly data that can be added together to calculate two-week rates. The 77 new cases per 100,000 people that were recorded last week in Sedgwick County was the worst week so far this month. The last time there were as many new cases per population was the week ending Aug. 29.

The worsening trend in the incidence rate is also a red-zone indicator in the KSDE’s school gating criteria guide.

The positive test rate, which compares new cases to new tests, has also worsened in Sedgwick County. However, the color zone did not change. The two-week rate was 5.83% as of Saturday, which is in the yellow zone. The rate had previously been 5.65%.

The state guide also uses student absenteeism and local hospital capacities as school gating criteria. However, there appears to be no public source of information with clear statistics for those criteria.

Despite Sedgwick County’s rate of new cases being in the red zone, it was tied for the second-best rate in the Wichita area.

Harvey County had the best rate at 73 new cases per 100,000 people over the last two weeks, which was in the yellow zone. It was the only Wichita-area county that was not in the red zone.

Sumner County had the same rate as Sedgwick County at 153 new cases. Butler County’s rate was 173 new cases.

Three counties had rates above 200 new cases, and one of those was above 300 — double the red zone threshold. Cowley County’s rate was 212, Kingman County’s rate was 280 and Reno County’s rate was 311.

Despite the high rates in the Wichita area, the local counties are far from the worst in the state. There were five counties with rates greater than 1,000 new cases per 100,000 residents.

Rawlins County’s rate was 1,107.

Haskell County’s rate was 1,184.

Grant County’s rate was 1,273.

Pawnee County’s rate was 1,356.

Cheyenne County’s rate was 1,543.

Only seven of the state’s 105 counties had rates in the green zone, which means between zero and 50 new cases per 100,000 people. Those counties were Barber, Clark, Harper, McPherson, Mitchell, Wichita and Wilson. The green zone in the school reopening guide permits all in-person classes and extracurricular activities.