As COVID trends improve, Kansas health leader emphasizes testing before spring break

The Kansas health secretary is emphasizing the importance of COVID-19 testing as spring break approaches and coronavirus pandemic indicators continue to improve.

Dr. Lee Norman, the secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said the state has started a campaign of “know before you go” to coincide with spring break in an attempt to get people tested.

“We think that we might see a little bit of a bump, an increase that is, at spring break time with people doing more traveling than they have been,” Norman said during a Tuesday media briefing hosted by The University of Kansas Health System. “We’re encouraging people to test before they go and test upon return just to identify cases that may not be symptomatic.”

Kansas coronavirus trends have been improving since spiking after the winter holidays.

As of Wednesday, the KDHE reported that the state has now had pandemic totals of 297,229 confirmed and probable cases, 9,467 hospitalizations, 2,585 ICU admissions and 4,851 deaths. The increase from Monday to Wednesday was 778 new cases, 56 new hospitalizations, 24 new ICU admissions and 35 new deaths.

Sedgwick County, according to the KDHE, has now had 54,195 cases, 1,485 hospitalizations, 440 ICU admissions and 717 deaths. Monday’s report contained 145 new cases, 18 new hospitalizations, 11 new ICU admissions and five new deaths.

The statewide positive test rate has been 2.9% so far this month, which Norman said is “very striking.”

“I think that we’re going to continue to show improvement,” he said.

Dr. Steve Stites, the chief medical officer at The University of Kansas Health System, warned that trends could reverse if people stop following health guidance.

“It is so much better today than it was six months ago,” Stites said. “People really do wear their masks on the plaza, they wear them outside. In the park, there are people gathering, but they generally tend to be a little bit further apart.

“My fear is things get warmed up, people start taking their masks off, if they haven’t been vaccinated, and then all of a sudden we’re going to see a rise. I don’t think we’ll see the same surge, because (some) people have been vaccinated. But if you’re the person who hasn’t been vaccinated and you get the infection and get really ill, it’s still going to be bad. We just have to be really careful. It’s not time yet to take off all the masks and try to say we’re normal. We are not normal.”

The KDHE’s weekly cluster update showed the state has 87 active outbreaks, down from 112 a week ago. The active cluster list identified four of the locations: the Shawnee County jail, the Topeka Correctional Facility, Wamego’s Vintage Park long-term care facility and Hesston’s AGCO Corp.

While most cluster categories have fewer active outbreaks this week, there are more school and sports clusters. The 13 ongoing clusters at schools is up from 12 last week, and the three sports clusters is up from two.

The biggest contributors to the drop in total active clusters were nursing homes and private businesses. The 26 ongoing outbreaks at long-term care facilities is down from 37 a week ago, and the 24 business clusters is down from 30 last week.

The state has had 1,841 total clusters during the pandemic, with five new outbreaks in the past week. Four were at private businesses, and the fifth was a sports cluster.

In the past week, the Sedgwick County Health Department has reported one new business cluster and one new school-related cluster.

About 16.9% of Kansans have received a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine in the past three months, while about 8.6% of Kansans have been fully vaccinated.

As of Monday, the KDHE has had 740,850 total doses reported as administered out of 1,112,250 distributed to Kansas. An additional 42,180 doses were administered and 91,870 new doses were distributed to the state between Monday and Wednesday.

There have been 491,430 total first shots reported as administered, which was an increase of 25,808 since Monday. The second shot total was 249,315, which was up 16,329 in two days.

The Sedgwick County Health Department has given out 63,772 total shots, with 21,566 people fully vaccinated. On Monday and Tuesday, the health department administered 2,485 first doses and had 1,920 people fully vaccinated.

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

Norman said the state has “pretty much finished” vaccinating the population of people who are 65 years old and older, or at least those who want the shots. That segment of the population accounts for 85% of all COVID-19 deaths in Kansas.

Norman said teachers have also mostly finished getting vaccinated, and he expressed disappointment in the relatively low level of correctional facility workers and nursing home staff who have chosen to be vaccinated.

Kansas continues to rank low in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s data on doses administered per capita. The Sunflower State is No. 46, ahead of Texas, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia.

State health officials continue to investigate how to improve vaccine reporting. Norman said about one-third of the data gap between doses distributed and doses administered is due to “data glitches.” The other two-thirds is mostly first doses waiting to be administered.

“We have been rather directive about not having inventory sitting on shelves,” he said.

This story was originally published March 10, 2021 at 3:45 PM.