Kansas has 193 more deaths from COVID; Sedgwick County was home to 25 of the patients

Another 193 Kansans, including 25 people from Sedgwick County, have died from COVID-19, state public health officials reported on Wednesday.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has now reported 2,741 total deaths in Kansas and 376 deaths in Sedgwick County from the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition to the 193 new deaths, the KDHE reported 6,371 new cases, 192 new hospitalizations and 61 more ICU admissions since Monday.

The increases appeared to be the most new deaths and new hospitalizations in any Monday-Wednesday-Friday report from the KDHE. The new case count appeared to be the most of any report this month.

There have now been 222,433 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Kansas. Sedgwick County has had 39,423 of those, which is the most of any county in the state.

The KDHE reported 42 new hospitalizations and 13 more ICU admissions in Sedgwick County. The county had 1,400 new cases reported over two days.

The Sedgwick County Health Department on Wednesday identified a new long-term care facility cluster at Derby Assisted Living, 719 N. Klein Circle. The eight cases include five staff and three residents. There have been fewer than five cases from a new cluster at Watercrest at Cherry Creek, 8200 E. Pawnee St.

The KDHE’s updated list of active coronavirus clusters included eight locations in Sedgwick County. It only includes cases within the last 14 days.

The Sedgwick County Detention Facility’s active outbreak has had 14 cases of COVID-19 in the last two weeks. Starkey Inc.’s group home has had eight cases. Spirit AeroSystem had five cases.

Diversicare of Haysville had six cases in the last two weeks, as did Mount Hope Nursing Center. Via Christi Village-McLean had nine cases. Wichita Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing had 53 cases. Wichita Presbyterian Manor had 18 cases.

There could be additional active clusters in Wichita and the surrounding communities. The KDHE only identifies a fraction of the state’s active clusters, leaving out certain outbreaks for privacy reasons and excluding others that have few cases in the last two weeks.

The KDHE named 55 locations in its weekly cluster update on Wednesday. Kansas has a total of 397 active outbreaks. More than half of the active clusters are at nursing homes.

There have been 1,585 clusters since the pandemic began, account for 1,308 of the state’s deaths.

This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 4:51 PM.