As Christmas nears, White House warns against gatherings in Kansas amid COVID surge
Kansas public health officials should “warn about any gathering during December holidays” after a post-Thanksgiving surge in the coronavirus pandemic, national experts recommend.
“Virus levels are decreasing in Kansas but are still at high levels,” the White House coronavirus task force report said. “Throughout the holiday season, all media platforms should remain saturated with messaging on the risks of indoor social gatherings without masks. Find ways to keep testing levels high through holiday season to remove asymptomatic transmission.”
The Dec. 13 report from President Donald Trump’s administration was obtained by The Center for Public Integrity over the weekend. It reflects statistics for the week ending Dec. 11.
The report shows Kansas with a rate of 591 new cases per 100,000 residents, which is nearly six times the red zone threshold of 100 per 100,000. Kansas had the 10th-worst rate in the country.
The state’s positive test rate was 18.8%, which is above the red zone threshold of 10%. Kansas had the fourth-highest rate in the United States.
The 286 deaths from COVID-19 in one week was a rate of 9.8 per 100,000 people. That’s nearly five times the red zone threshold of two per 100,000. Kansas had the fifth-highest rate.
The 1,661 new hospital admissions for COVID-19 was in the red zone, with a rate of 21 per 100 hospital beds. The red zone threshold is above 15 admissions per 100 beds. Kansas had the 20th-worst rate.
For the most recent week of nursing home reporting, which was Nov. 30-Dec. 6, 60% of nursing homes had an employee test positive, 34% had a resident test positive and 19% had a resident die. The high levels of positive staff at long-term care facilities indicates “continued and unmitigated community spread.”
In the Wichita area, Sedgwick, Reno, Harvey and Butler counties are all in the White House red zone for new deaths. In Sedgwick County, a post-Thanksgiving surge in new cases and the positive test rate set records for the worst week of the pandemic, new data from the Sedgwick County Health Department show.
“This current fall to winter surge continues to spread to every corner of the US, from small towns to large cities and from farms to beach communities,” the task force said. “The fall surge is merging with the post-Thanksgiving surge to create a winter surge with the most rapid increase in cases ... we have experienced.
“Despite the severity of this surge and the threat to the hospital systems, many state and local governments are not implementing the same mitigation policies that stemmed the tide of the summer surge. Many Americans continue to gather indoors, creating private spreading events outside of public spaces.”
The White House task force said stronger mitigation measures are needed, statewide and locally. It recommended a “significant reduction in capacity or closure in public and private indoor spaces, including restaurants and bars.”
“Focus on uniform behavioral change including masking, physical distancing, hand hygiene, no indoor gatherings outside of the immediate households, and ensuring every American understands the clear risks of ANY family or friend interactions outside of their immediate household indoors without masks.”
“All public health officials must make it clear that if you are over 65 or with significant health conditions, you should not enter any indoor public spaces where anyone is unmasked due to the immediate risk to your health; you should have groceries and medications delivered.”
The report recommends using antibodies to treat high-risk patients who have mild or moderate symptoms. Early use of antibodies may reduce the likelihood of being hospitalized and improve outcomes. But antibodies are not helpful and may be harmful when treating late-stage patients, especially those who need assistance breathing.
Once hospitalized, patients should be treated with Remdesivir, which is most beneficial early into the hospital admission. Late-stage patients with severe COVID-19 should be treated with Dexamethasone. There drug does not appear to help patients who have not needed oxygen support.
The report suggests there is inadequate testing in Kansas.
“Please utilize all antigen tests during this current surge to find community asymptomatic spread,” the report said, noting there may be some unused antigen tests being kept in storage. “These are essential for testing now.
“The silent community spread that precedes and continues to drive these surges can only be identified and interrupted through proactive focused testing for both the identification of symptomatic and pre-symptomatic individuals.”
Long-term care facilities need to be at full testing capacity, and schools need active testing if the surrounding community as increasing spread, the White House task force said. Teachers and students must wear masks. Colleges and universities “must have testing plans in place for spring semester, mandatorily testing all students weekly to prevent spread in the community.”
Antigen tests, which have grown in popularity because they provide more rapid results at a lower cost, are less sensitive and more prone to inaccurate results. Guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say patients who test positive using an antigen test should be counted as probable cases.
The Sedgwick County Health Department does not follow that guidance, excluding cases that are not confirmed with a PCR test. Antigen tests are counted as cases by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, but they are not included in calculating the positive test rate.
The different reporting criteria contributes to a large discrepancy in case counts. As of Friday, the KDHE reported 35,106 confirmed and probable cases in Sedgwick County. The local health department reported 28,717 confirmed cases.
This story was originally published December 20, 2020 at 7:12 PM.