Kansas reports 46 new COVID deaths; Sedgwick County now No. 1 in state for cases
As Kansans prepare for Gov. Laura Kelly’s statewide mask mandate to go into effect later this week, Sedgwick County has become the leader in COVID-19 infections.
Over the weekend, Sedgwick County surpassed Johnson County for the highest number of infections in the state, reporting 132 more cumulative cases. Last week ended with Johnson County still in the No. 1 spot.
Monday’s report from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment shows 25,157 COVID-19 cases overall in Sedgwick County, an increase of 1,681 cases since Friday. There have been 613 hospitalizations since infections began spreading this past spring.
Johnson County reported 25,025 cases overall with 759 hospitalizations.
The Sedgwick County Health Department reports a lower total — 21,625 cases with 1,412 new since Friday — in part because it does not include probable cases as KDHE does and because there may be a delay in reporting and finalizing numbers between the two government agencies.
Monday also brought a record number of new infections reported statewide since the KDHE started releasing COVID-19 data on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays. The 7,526 new cases topped the previous record of 7,234 set a week ago.
Statewide there were 46 more deaths, 95 new hospitalizations and 7,526 new cases of the disease reported since Friday, according to the KDHE data. Sedgwick County reported eight new deaths over the weekend.
The people who died are all adults. So far, no children have died from COVID-19 in the state.
The new deaths included people in every age range over 44 years old. Nearly half of the deaths occurred in people 85 and older.
The youngest person to die from COVID-19 in Kansas is 18. The oldest is 107. The median age is 80, the KDHE data shows.
The new statewide hospitalization numbers include patients from every age group 25 and older. One additional child under age 10 was also hospitalized, bringing the cumulative statewide total for that age range to 51 patients.
Across the state, 25 patients were newly admitted to hospital intensive care units over the weekend. Five more people needed ventilators to help them breathe, the KDHE reported.
In total, 1,456 deaths from COVID-19 have been reported statewide. There have been 142,059 positive cases and 4,777 hospitalizations reported to KDHE since the pandemic began.
Sedgwick County accounts for about 17% of the total cases and nearly 13% of hospitalizations across Kansas. Slightly less than 18% of the state’s population live in the county.
Sedgwick County also has reported 149 deaths, about 10.2% of the statewide total.
Currently, the average age of a Kansan infected with COVID-19 is 41. The median age is 38. The youngest and oldest reported infections are 0 and 107 years old.
This story was originally published November 23, 2020 at 1:01 PM.
