New ‘storymap’ has trove of info on Sedgwick County COVID crisis; here’s where it’s at
Amid major increases in Sedgwick County’s COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, the county has created a “storymap” to help residents understand the threat better.
The storymap offers far more detail than the county’s COVID dashboard, which has until now been the main source of public information on the local impact of the pandemic.
The storymap was demonstrated to county commissioners by epidemiology project manager Kaylee Hervey at a staff meeting Tuesday.
Using the storymap, residents will be able to see a much clearer picture of the spread and impact of the coronavirus pandemic in the community, she said.
One of the new features is a “toggle map” allowing people to instantly compare case rates and testing rates by ZIP code.
For example, the current maps shows the highest case rates — 350 to 766 cases per 10,000 residents — are concentrated in central Wichita in ZIP codes 67202, 67203, 67204, 67208 and 67214; plus rural west-county ZIP codes 67050 (Garden Plain) and 67149 (Viola).
But the most testing is being done in four ZIP codes: 67202 and 67204 (central Wichita), 67206 (east Wichita and Eastborough) and 67227 (northwest of Schulte).
Other improvements over the dashboard include:
▪ COVID clusters — including the types — nursing home, school, business, etc. — and the numbers of active clusters versus closed clusters.
The highest number of active clusters, 30, are in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, followed by schools, 10, and businesses, 5, the storymap shows. As of Saturday, 518 current cases of COVID-19 were related to care facility clusters, 115 to schools and 107 to businesses.
▪ Mass gatherings — Data for this metric remains somewhat sketchy, due to restrictions on contract tracing established by the state Legislature.
Of those with COVID-19, 89% who got COVID the week of Nov. 8 reported they had attended a gathering where they may have caught the disease, although only 9% specified the type of gathering.
Among those who did provide full information, a little over half reported they’d attended a church event and slightly under half said they’d attended a party of some type.
▪ Age breakdowns — The storymap offers detailed data on what age groups are getting the virus and of those, how many have to be hospitalized.
The data shows new cases have shifted from the older age groups to younger as the pandemic has evolved.
In April, ages 70-79 and over 80 were the two groups with the most COVID cases per capita. Now, the highest disease rates are among those ages 20-29, 40-49 and 30-39, the storymap shows.
To see the storymap, go to www.sedgwickcounty.org and click on “Exploring COVID-19 Data.”
This story was originally published November 17, 2020 at 1:51 PM.
