Sedgwick County passes 30,000 cases of COVID-19 as Wichita hospital ICUs remain full

Sedgwick County has now surpassed 30,000 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 since the coronavirus pandemic began.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment on Monday reported 174,025 total confirmed and probable cases in Kansas. Sedgwick County has had the most of any county, at 30,881.

Sedgwick County had 1,117 new cases over the weekend while the statewide increase was 5,730.

There have been 1,856 total deaths in Kansas, which is up 70 from Friday. There was one new death in the 18-24 age group. The rest of the patients were 45 years old or older.

Kansas has had 5,509 total hospitalizations after an increase of 92 over the weekend. The increase included patients in every age group. There were also 21 more patients admitted to ICUs.

Sedgwick County residents, all of whom were older than 55 years old, accounted for 19 of the new hospitalizations. The county had six more ICU admissions.

The Sedgwick County Health Department reported fewer COVID-19 patients were hospitalized in Wichita as of Monday compared to last Monday, but the ICUs are still full at Ascension Via Christi and Wesley Healthcare facilities.

There were 241 patients with COVID-19 hospitalized as of Monday morning, which was down from an all-time high of 273 last week. There were 78 COVID-19 patients in the ICUs, which was down from 80 last week and a high of 88 three weeks ago.

All approximately 208 ICU beds continue to be in use, though “both hospitals are managing through contingency operations,” the health department reports.

All 105 counties continue to be in the red zone of the rate of new cases per population, which means a rate higher than 150 new cases per 100,000 people. There are 77 counties in the red zone of the positive test rate, which means a rate above 15%.

The numbers are for the two-week period ending Dec. 2.

• Sedgwick County had rates of 885 new cases per 100,000 people and 21.60% positivity.
• Reno County had rates of 1,602 new cases per 100,000 people and 27.30% positivity.
• Butler County had rates of 1,025 new cases per 100,000 people and 17.57% positivity.
• Harvey County had rates of 918 new cases per 100,000 people and 11.66% positivity.
• Cowley County had rates of 1,086 new cases per 100,000 people and 15.26% positivity.
• Sumner County had rates of 1,025 new cases per 100,000 people and 35.04% positivity.
• Kingman County had rates of 1,161 new cases per 100,000 people and 11.72% positivity.

The metrics are two key indicators in the state’s guide for closing schools. The state recommends that schools move to remote learning and stop sports when in the red zone.

A lower positive test rate — 10% — is the threshold set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Nursing homes must test their staff at least twice a week if their county has a rate above 10% and a sufficient amount of the population has been tested.

All but 21 counties in Kansas meet that criteria, though 14 of those counties have positive test rates above 10%.

Long-term care facilities in Comanche County, which has the highest positive test rate in the state at 56.7%, must test their staff only one a week because not enough of the population was tested during the last two weeks. The threshold is set at 2,000 people per 100,000 population.

If four more people would have been tested, the county would have met the population testing threshold. If all four were negative, the county would still have a positive test rate of 50%.

At least eight of the county’s 17 positive tests in the last two weeks come from a cluster at the Pioneer Lodge Nursing Home in Coldwater, according to the KDHE.

This story was originally published December 7, 2020 at 1:29 PM.