White House to Kansas: ‘assume you became infected’ with COVID at Thanksgiving party

The White House wants younger Kansans to act like they were infected with the novel coronavirus if they attended a Thanksgiving party.

“If you are under 40, you need to assume you became infected during the Thanksgiving period if you gathered beyond your immediate household,” the White House coronavirus task force wrote in its Nov. 29 report to Kansas. “Most likely, you will not have symptoms; however, you are dangerous to others and you must isolate away from anyone at increased risk for severe disease and get tested immediately.”

The report, obtained by The Center for Public Integrity, said senior citizens and people with significant health conditions are “at a significant risk for serious COVID infection” if they gathered with people outside their household during the holiday. Those at-risk people should be tested immediately if they develop symptoms because most therapeutics work best early in the infection.

Even if seniors and those with preexisting conditions did not attend Thanksgiving gatherings, they should be careful. The report recommended having groceries and medications delivered.

“It must be made clear that if you are over 65 or have significant health conditions, you should not enter any indoor public spaces where anyone is unmasked due to the immediate risk to your health,” the White House report said.

The Sunflower State is in the White House’s red zone for new cases and the positive test rate. The weekly per-capita case rate is the ninth-highest in the country, the positivity rate is the third-highest and the per-capita death rate is the 18th-worst.

The Kansas case rate is about 80% higher than the national average.

“Cases may be reaching a plateau in Kansas,” the report states, adding that “testing and case trends should be cautiously interpreted this week given the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.”

National health experts have predicted that coronavirus test and case numbers will likely be erratic this week. The long holiday weekend was expected to mean delays in testing and reporting, creating an illusion that spread of the virus is slowing.

The White House report noted that 93% of all Kansas counties have moderate or high levels of community spread, and 88% have high levels.

Kansas hospitals are reporting critical staffing shortages and not enough personal protective equipment, the federal report notes. There was a 10% reduction in daily COVID-19 hospital admissions statewide last week, but “hospitalizations will continue in the coming weeks.”

The report recommends ensuring full testing capacity at long-term care facilities, as well as isolation of positive staff and residents. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services requires facilities to test their staff at least twice a week if their county has a positive test rates greater than 10%.

As coronavirus numbers worsen in Kansas and the United States, the White House report points to “clear improvement in many European countries that have implemented strong public and private mitigation but preserved schooling.” It also notes that some states and cities achieved early stability within four weeks when they implemented aggressive mitigation measures.

“However, in many areas of the USA, state mitigation efforts remain inadequate, resulting in sustained transmission or a very prolonged time to peak — over 7 weeks,” the report said. “All states and counties must flatten the curve now in order to sustain the health system for both COVID and non-COVID emergencies.”

The report does not specify whether it considers the mitigation efforts in Kansas or the Wichita area to be strong enough.

Many Kansas schools appear to be doing the opposite of what the White House reports recommend.

The reports note that schooling has been preserved in many places through strong mitigation strategies. It recommends that K-12 teachers and students be tested, and that they wear masks. However, schools should consider pausing sports because the related activities “are where transmission is occurring.”

Wichita, Maize, Derby and Valley Center have all shut down their schools to regular in-person learning, primarily citing staffing shortages due to positive cases and quarantines. But area schools are continuing with winter sports after the Kansas State High School Activities Association banned fans for about two months.

For colleges and universities that returned to in-person classes after Thanksgiving, all students should be tested weekly until the semester ends, the White House task force said.

Limiting indoor restaurant capacity to less than 25% and limiting bar hours are effective practices to decrease transmission in public places, according to the report. In Sedgwick County’s public health order, the restaurant capacity limit is set at 50% with restaurant and bar closing time at 11 p.m.

This story was originally published December 2, 2020 at 4:06 PM.