November saw a doubling of cases and 15 new school COVID clusters in Sedgwick County

Sedgwick County more than doubled its total number of COVID-19 cases in November as local health officials reported 15 new outbreaks at schools. Wichita’s two major hospital systems spent the entire month with more critically-ill patients than the intensive care units could hold.

November was not a good month for coronavirus statistics in Kansas, or the state’s largest city.

“Our children need our community to step up and get these numbers down, whatever that may mean and however that needs to happen, we need to get our numbers down,” Wichita school Superintendent Alicia Thompson said Monday as the state’s largest district moved to fully remote learning.

Wichita Public Schools went from 567 quarantined employees on Nov. 6 to 1,173 teachers and staff in active quarantines on Nov. 27, or about 16% of the workforce.

Education officials have said they believe most staff were infected while out in the community and not at work, but data has shown school staff were being diagnosed with COVID-19 at double the rate of the county population.

Sedgwick County went from one school-related cluster at the start of the month to 16 by the end of it, according to local health department reports. Less than half have been publicly identified. The Sedgwick County Health Department has only identified the first cluster, which was at Derby High School.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has named additional outbreaks at Derby Middle School, Derby Cooper Elementary School, Maize High School, Maize South High School, Maize Elementary School and Haysville’s Campus High School. There was also a separate sports cluster report for the Derby High School football team. The KDHE has not publicly identified any clusters at colleges or universities in Sedgwick County.

Public school districts in Maize, Derby and Valley Center also moved to fully remote learning last month.

“As has been the case in November, we have significant concerns about being able to keep school buildings physically open in December because of the high number of infections affecting our staffing capacity,” Maize school Superintendent Chad Higgins said in a statement last month. “Employee absences have crippled our operations, from classrooms to support services, including transportation, food service, and maintenance.”

The White House COVID-19 task force said in November that Kansas was experiencing “exponential and unyielding spread” of the coronavirus.

From Oct. 30 to Nov. 30, Kansas had an 84.9% increase in the total number of confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases, according to KDHE statistics. Sedgwick County had a 112.9% increase in that same time frame. There were 157,466 total cases in Kansas and 27,966 total cases in Sedgwick County as of Nov. 30.

As for the statewide positive test rate, it doubled month over month, from 9.2% in October to 18.4% in November.

Exact month-to-month comparisons for most KDHE statistics are not possible, as most numbers are updated on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday basis.

“We are in a very dangerous place due to the current, extremely high COVID baseline and limited hospital capacity; a further post-Thanksgiving surge will compromise COVID patient care, as well as medical care overall,” the White House task force told Kansas in its report this week.

In Wichita, Ascension Via Christi and Wesley Healthcare hospitals have had full ICUs since the start of the month, according to the Sedgwick County Health Department. The agency reports hospital data weekly. The local hospital status became “critical” in November.

Between Oct. 26 and Nov. 30, the number of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 more than tripled, from 90 to 273. The number of those patients in the ICU more than doubled, from 39 to 80. The surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations kept all approximately 208 ICU beds full all month, though the health department said the hospitals are managing through “contingency operations.”

Statewide, the KDHE reported 1,273 new hospitalizations between Oct. 30 and Nov. 30, along with 286 new ICU admissions and 72 more patients on ventilators. Sedgwick County residents accounted for 149 of those hospitalizations, 32 of the ICU admissions and three of the patients on ventilators.

The statewide hospitalizations included multiple patients from all age groups, though about 62% were 65 years old or older. About 1.6% were children. Sedgwick County also had multiple residents of each age group hospitalized in November. About 59% of the new hospital patients were older than 65 and about 3.4% were younger than 18.

The Kansas death count for COVID-19 increased by 531 in November, though it is unclear how many of those patients died in previous months and had delayed reporting on the coronavirus dashboard. There have been 1,560 total deaths attributed to the coronavirus disease in the state.

There were new deaths reported in every adult age group. No Kansas children have been reported to have died so far from COVID-19. Patients older than 65 accounted for about 89% of the deaths reported in November.

Sedgwick County reported 17 new deaths between Nov. 1 and Dec. 1. The county’s total was 150 as of the end of the month. The county does not release demographic information for COVID-19 deaths.

Kansas ended the month with a weekend case increase that was lower than previous weeks. It could suggest a late-month improvement in case trends, or it could be an illusion due to delayed reporting over the long Thanksgiving weekend, health experts have said.

The KDHE only issues cluster updates weekly, so monthly comparisons are imperfect.

Between Oct. 28 and Nov. 25, the state reported 411 new clusters of COVID-19. The number of cases connected to clusters increased by 6,707, with 187 hospitalizations and 229 deaths. The number of active outbreaks nearly doubled, from 261 to 517.

Nursing homes and other long-term care facilities accounted for the greatest share of the increases. There were 152 new outbreaks at nursing homes in that time span. The new and existing clusters added 205 deaths.

There were 53 new clusters at schools, 14 connected to sports and six at colleges or universities. One new death was connected to a sports cluster.

As hospitals have struggled with a surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations, they have also had to content with their own outbreaks. There were 28 clusters at medical facilities in those four weeks. One new death was reported.

There were 58 private businesses that had new clusters and four more meatpacking plants. Four more deaths came from business and five more from packing plants. There were 39 private events that had outbreaks during that time. One new death was reported.

There were 11 religious gatherings, 11 group homes and seven correctional facilities with new clusters in those four weeks. Six new deaths were connected to churches and other religious functions, two more deaths were from group living situations and four new deaths were from outbreaks at jails or prisons.

There were also new outbreaks at 18 government offices, four daycares, three bars or restaurants, two public events and one travel group. None of those cluster categories had a new death.

This story was originally published December 3, 2020 at 9:01 PM.