Sedgwick County passes 700 COVID deaths; Kansas active cluster count drops to new low

Sedgwick County has now surpassed 700 deaths from COVID-19 as Kansas reported its best coronavirus cluster numbers since August.

As of Wednesday, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported that the state has now had pandemic totals of 295,109 confirmed and probable cases, 9,355 hospitalizations, 2,541 ICU admissions and 4,816 deaths. The increase from Monday to Wednesday was 807 new cases, 65 new hospitalizations, 20 new ICU admissions and 73 new deaths.

Sedgwick County, according to the KDHE, has now had 53,830 cases, 1,455 hospitalizations, 424 ICU admissions and 711 deaths. Wednesday’s report contained 151 new cases, 23 new hospitalizations, six new ICU admissions and 17 new deaths.

The coronavirus is still being spread through community transmission, though masks and other precautions have slowed the spread, Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer at The University of Kansas Health System, said during a Wednesday media briefing.

“Don’t take off your masks yet, it’s not time to do that, despite what the state of Texas just did,” Stites said, referring to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Tuesday announcement that he’s lifting the state’s mask mandate.

Stites said Kansas businesses, including restaurants and bars, can still open safely, provided they follow precautions.

The doctor warned of the dangerous potential posed by coronavirus variants. Brazil, which is home to one of the three variants that have been found in the U.S., is in the midst of a surge.

While the Brazil variant has not been found in Kansas, the U.K. variant has. Kansas also has not had any cases of the South Africa variant.

“Let that be a warning to you,” Stites said. “The variants are out there, things started to relax a little bit, they didn’t have that many people immunized, and all of a sudden they have a really high peak again. Another surge can come if we relax.”

“If we can continue to be vigilant, we can continue to have decreasing cases,” said Dr. Dana Hawkinson, KU’s medical director of infection prevention and control.

COVID vaccines

As of Wednesday, the KDHE has had 614,166 total doses reported as administered out of 939,890 distributed to Kansas.

There have been 411,379 total first shots reported as administered, or about 14.1% of the population. There have been 202,787 second shots reported as administered, or about 7% of the population.

Between Monday and Wednesday, the KDHE logged 17,519 new first shots given and 12,200 second shots given.

Data as of Wednesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has Kansas ranked as the fifth-worst in the country for total doses administered per capita. Kansas ranks ahead of Tennessee, Texas, Alabama, and Georgia.

The Sedgwick County Health Department has administered 50,248 doses in total, including 33,623 first doses and 16,625 second doses. On Monday and Tuesday, the county administered 2,441 new first doses and 1,103 new second doses.

Those numbers do not include vaccinations from other providers, such as hospitals and pharmacies.

Coronavirus clusters

The KDHE reports weekly data on coronavirus clusters.

Wednesday’s report showed seven new clusters in the past week: three at private businesses, two at long-term care facilities, one at a government office and one at a health care facility. There were 18 new deaths reported from clusters: 16 at long-term care facilities, one at a health care facility and one at a correctional facility

The 112 active clusters is a drop from 156 a week ago. The current number is the lowest figure publicly reported by the KDHE, which started releasing cluster data in August.

The KDHE’s list of active outbreaks identified only a fraction of the 112 active clusters. The list named four locations.

In the past two weeks, Topeka Correctional Facility has had 59 cases, Healthcare Resort of Topeka has had six cases, the Vintage Park long-term care facility in Wamego has had seven cases and The Hutchinson News has had six cases.

While the KDHE document did not name any outbreaks in Wichita or Sedgwick County, the Sedgwick County Health Department reported one new business cluster in the past week.

This story was originally published March 3, 2021 at 3:47 PM.