Wichita hospitals remain ‘critical’ with full ICUs as Kansas COVID case counts improve

Wichita hospitals continue to have no available beds in their intensive care units, despite improving COVID-19 numbers locally and statewide.

The Sedgwick County Health Department on Monday reported all approximately 208 ICU beds remain full at Ascension Via Christi and Wesley Medical Center hospitals. It marks the 13th straight week of full ICUs.

Both hospitals have been managing through contingency operations, the health department has said. The hospital status remains “critical,” though the term has not been defined by county officials.

Patient census numbers continue to improve, as the 42 COVID-19 patients currently in ICUs was a drop of 23 from last week and the lowest mark since Oct. 26. The total number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients was 195, which was a drop of 10 since last week and the fewest hospitalizations since Nov. 9.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment on Monday reported 24 new deaths since Friday. There were also 2,602 new cases, 76 new hospitalizations and 29 new ICU admissions reported over the weekend.

There have now been 269,255 cases, 8,117 hospitalizations, 2,210 ICU admissions and 3,622 deaths in total since the coronavirus pandemic reached Kansas in March.

Sedgwick County has had 48,970 cases, 1,113 hospitalizations, 316 ICU admissions and 502 deaths, according to KDHE totals. There were 746 new cases, 24 new hospitalizations, 10 new ICU admissions and three new deaths reported in the county over the weekend.

Sedgwick County, for having about 18% of the state’s population, had a disproportionate share of the new cases and hospitalizations. The county’s numbers were about 29% of the state’s new cases, 32% of the new hospitalizations and 34% of the new ICU admissions. The county’s share of new deaths was better, at about 13%.

The county’s rate of new cases and the positive test rate, which are school reopening criteria, continue to improve. However, Sedgwick County’s rates remain worse than the statewide rates.

The KDHE reported a two-week, per-capita rate of about 378 new cases per 100,000 people in Sedgwick County. That is a drop of nearly 39% since last week, but the rate remains more than double the red zone threshold.

Sedgwick County’s two-week positive test rate was 9.69%, which is at the upper end of the yellow zone. That is a drop of about 1.9 percentage points.

The Kansas Department of Education’s gating criteria uses a red zone that calls for remote-only schooling for secondary students and stopping extracurricular activities. They yellow zone allows a hybrid of in-person and online classes for the middle and high school students, though it bars high-risk sports like basketball and wrestling.

As the vaccine roll-out continues, the KDHE reported 13,664 more doses were administered. There have now been 132,302 first shots given, along with 25,218 second shots.

The state has distributed 255,550 total doses. That number did not increase over the weekend.

The Sedgwick County Health Department reported 825 first doses and 50 second doses of a vaccine were administered on Friday. On Saturday, there were 939 first doses administered.

The health department has now administered 11,564 total doses, of which 200 have been second doses. The numbers represent only the health department’s vaccination data and does not include inoculations by other providers.

This story was originally published January 25, 2021 at 2:04 PM.