White House encourages stronger health orders in Kansas as COVID crisis worsens

The White House coronavirus task force is warning Kansas that mitigation efforts need to be strengthened as the pandemic sweeps across the state.

“There is now aggressive, unrelenting, expanding broad community spread across the country, reaching most counties, without evidence of improvement but rather, further deterioration,” the White House task force wrote in Sunday’s report to Kansas. “Current mitigation efforts are inadequate and must be increased to flatten the curve to sustain the health system for both COVID and non-COVID emergencies.”

The report from President Donald Trump’s administration was obtained by the Center for Public Integrity. It paints a sobering picture of COVID-19 in the Sunflower State. Stopping high school sports is among its recommendations.

“There is exponential and unyielding spread across the state,” the task force said.

Last week, Kansas had the fifth-worst positive test rate in the country, plus the ninth-worst per capita rate of new cases and the 19th-worse per capita death rate. The rate of new cases in Kansas is more than double the national average. Sedgwick County has surpassed Johnson County for the most new cases of COVID-19.

The report, which contains various statistics and maps, shows 95 Kansas counties are in the red zone for the rate of new cases per population. The other 10 counties were not placed in a color zone due to insufficient information.

Sedgwick County health officer Dr. Garold Minns said Monday that the local hospital situation has become a crisis. It may be worse than reported, as the White House says COVID-related hospitalizations may be under-counted in Kansas, which could lead to receiving inadequate supplies.

Long-term care facilities face an especially dire situation. Nearly half — 48% — of all nursing homes in Kansas had at least one staff member test positive during the week of Nov. 2-8, according to the White House report. At least one resident tested positive at 24% of nursing homes during that week, and at least one resident died at 9% of nursing homes.

Minns strengthened his local health order last week. It included capping restaurant capacity to 50%, reducing attendance at sporting events, closing bars and clubs at 11 p.m. and requiring retail stores to enforce mask mandates. The maximum fine is $500 for repeat violators.

His order didn’t go far enough, according to the White House recommendations.

“With nearly all counties in the red zone and nearly 50% of nursing homes having at least one positive staff member, mitigation and messaging efforts need to be further strengthened,” the White House task force said. “Effective practices to decrease transmission in public spaces include limiting restaurant indoor capacity to less than 25% and limiting bar hours until cases and test positivity decrease to the yellow zone.

“Ensure compliance with public health orders including wearing masks. Similarly, consider pausing extracurricular school activities, even though athletics are not transmission risks, as the surrounding activities are where transmission is occurring.”

High school basketball and other high-risk winter sports started practices this week. Football playoffs continue on Friday. State championship games are scheduled for Thanksgiving weekend.

None of those should continue, according to the White House’s recommendations. The report did not make recommendations on in-person K-12 education.

For more than a month, the White House task force has warned about college students spreading the coronavirus when returning home for the holidays. The task force has recommended that universities test their students weekly. On Oct. 11, the task force said college students needed to keep case counts low in preparation for Thanksgiving and recommended testing all students before they went home. On Oct. 25, they said college students needed to “do their part” to slow the spread.

“On university campuses, students are letting their guards down with Thanksgiving break less than a week away,” the task force said Sunday’s report. “Message to students to continue their mitigation actions on and off campus to protect others and themselves. If they are going home, they should follow CDC holiday guidelines for protective behaviors.”

The report suggests that celebrities or other influential people could help convince Kansans to follow basic health guidance that health experts have been advocating for months.

“Recruit local influencers to message to rural and urban communities basic actions to take now: Do not gather without a mask with individuals living outside of your household. Always wear a mask in public places. Stop gatherings beyond immediate household until cases and test positivity are in the yellow zone. Get your flu shot,” the task force said.

The report recommends incentivizing people younger than 40 years old to get tested. The White House commended the state for its “bold steps” in testing asymptomatic people.

It also recommended conducting “full contact tracing.” Contact tracing has emerged as a trouble spot during the pandemic, and the problems were predicted over the summer. Health officials, including Sedgwick County’s Adrienne Byrne, have blamed revisions to the state’s emergency management law on fewer patients cooperating with epidemiologists.

This story was originally published November 17, 2020 at 8:41 PM.