Coronavirus update: Kansas sees its best week of cases in more than eight months
The dropping trend of COVID-19 cases in Kansas continues.
The past week in Kansas saw 1,887 new cases, the lowest week since the end of June. The weekly high of cases was more than 19,000 cases at the end of November. From there, it ebbed and flowed before starting to drop in all but one consecutive week so far this year.
Friday’s report from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment listed an additional 519 cases, continuing the trend of fewer cases. Each one of the thrice-weekly reports from Sept. 18 to Feb. 19 listed cases in the thousands. The high was more than 7,500 cases on Nov. 23. Each weekly report so far in March has been under 1,000.
The number of deaths also has been decreasing.
The latest report listed zero new deaths and 36 hospitalizations for COVID-19. Deaths since Wednesday’s report actually dropped by 27 to a total of 4,824. The KDHE says the drop was part of a normal process from reviewing death certificates and identifying that previously reported deaths were inaccurately attributed to COVID-19.
Kansas has had a total of 297,748 cases and 9,503 hospitalizations since the beginning of the pandemic.
It took about eight months to surpass the first 100,000 cases and less than 1.5 months to hit 200,000. It is about a week shy of three months since hitting the 200,000 mark, and Kansas is now nearing the 300,000 milestone.
Cases have slowed but so has testing. But the percentage of tests coming back positive for COVID-19 has dropped, possibly indicating less community spread.
Testing reached a high of 187,679 people in November. That month there was also a high of 16.4% of tests coming back positive. There were nearly 72,000 people tested last month, with about 4.6% of the tests coming back positive. The positive-tests rate is under 3% so far this month, according to KDHE data.
This week, KDHE Secretary Dr. Lee Norman said he fears Kansas could see a “little bit of a bump” in COVID-19 cases as people travel for spring break.
In Kansas, 525,926 people, or about 18.1% of the population, have received a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 264,981 have received both doses, according to the KDHE.
Sedgwick County
Sedgwick County COVID-19 cases increased by 75 from Wednesday to 54,270, the KDHE reported on Friday. Sedgwick County has the second most cases among counties in Kansas, behind Johnson County’s 55,185 cases.
Sedgwick County has had 717 COVID-19 deaths; Johnson County has 734.
This story was originally published March 13, 2021 at 5:00 AM.