Kansas has ‘substantial’ community COVID spread, even as pandemic indicators improve

Federal public health officials say Kansas has “substantial” community spread of the coronavirus, even as pandemic indicators continue to improve.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment on Wednesday reported pandemic totals of 303,767 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases, 9,824 hospitalizations, 2,698 ICU admissions and 4,932 deaths. The increases since Monday were 540 new cases, 39 new hospitalizations, 10 new ICU admissions and five new deaths.

Sedgwick County, according to the KDHE, has had totals of 55,000 cases, 1,605 hospitalizations, 496 ICU admissions and 735 deaths. The two-day increases were 87 new cases, 12 new hospitalizations, six new ICU admissions and zero new deaths.

Wichita hospitals, as of Monday, were treating a combined 30 COVID-19 patients, up from 29 a week before, the Sedgwick County Health Department reported. Ascension Via Christi and Wesley Healthcare hospitals had eight COVID-19 patients in ICUs, down from 13 the week before.

The local ICU number is the lowest number reported since the health department started releasing data last summer.

The White House COVID-19 Task Force report for Kansas, publicly released Tuesday but dated Friday, showed “substantial” community transmission in the state. Week over week, it showed a 29% drop in the case rate, a 27% drop in the death rate, a 6% drop in the confirmed hospitalization rate and an increase in the positive test rate of 0.2 percentage points.

The community spread level in Sedgwick County was listed as “moderate.”

Kansas had the fifth-best case rate in the country, with the ranking including all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. Kansas had the 13th-best positive test rate, the sixth-best hospitalization rate and was No. 24 of 52 on the death rate.

In the KDHE’s weekly cluster update on Wednesday, the state reported 10 new clusters in the past week, raising the total for the coronavirus pandemic to 1,873 clusters. Clusters accounted for 13 new deaths in the past week, with all of them from long-term care facilities.

The number of active outbreaks was 30, down from 39 the week before. The only active outbreak location identified on the KDHE’s cluster list was the Shawnee County jail, with five cases in the past two weeks.

Of the 30 active outbreaks in Kansas, there are 11 at businesses, four at government offices, three at private events, three at sports, two at correctional facilities, two at group homes, two at nursing homes, one at a college or university, one at a meatpacking plant and one at a school.

Vaccine data

The KDHE on Wednesday reported 1,435,128 total COVID-19 vaccine doses administered out of 1,908,280 doses distributed to the state.

Since Monday, 35,936 new first doses were administered and 29,270 more people were fully vaccinated. The 931,652 people vaccinated with a first dose are 32% of the population, and the 538,903 people who are fully vaccinated are 18.5% of the population.

The KDHE reports that 28.7% of people in Sedgwick County have gotten at least a first dose of a vaccine. Elsewhere in the Wichita area, Harvey County has the highest rate at 36.1%, followed by Kingman County at 30.8%, Reno County at 29.9%, Cowley County at 28.8%, Butler County at 27.5% and Sumner County at 24.9%.

Douglas County has the highest first-dose vaccination rate in Kansas at 44.5%, while Geary County’s 13.5% is the worst, according to the KDHE. Johnson County’s rate is 31.6%.

The Sedgwick County Health Department, as of Wednesday, has administered 152,964 doses and fully vaccinated 52,887 people. On Monday and Tuesday, the health department administered 2,284 first doses and fully vaccinated 4,974 people.

Those numbers do not include other providers in the county.