Kansas has among the best COVID indicators in the US as variants fuel surges elsewhere
Kansas continues to have mostly improving pandemic indicators, even as coronavirus variants have fueled surges in other areas of the country.
The latest report from the White House COVID-19 Task Force, dated Friday but released on Tuesday, showed Kansas having “moderate” community spread. That is an improvement from “substantial” transmission a week before. The state’s four primary pandemic indicators are all in green or yellow zones, and three of the four improved week-over-week.
Kansas has the sixth-best rate of new cases, the 11th-best positivity rate, the second-best hospital admission rate and the 12th-best death rate. The rankings include the 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
“I think of this as a road race really between the vaccine administration and the wild strain — the normal strain — of virus and these variants that are out there,” said Dr. Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. “So I think it really emphasizes, one, the need to continue to do the anti-contagion measures of masks and distancing, and then vaccine, vaccine, vaccine. Because we know the vaccines work against these strains.”
More than half of the adult population in Kansas have received at least a first vaccination.
“I breathe easier knowing when people get at least their first shot, and yet those variants are looming over us,” Norman said during a Tuesday media briefing hosted by The University of Kansas Health System.
Researchers have found that the major variants are spreading more easily than the original coronavirus strain. Scientists believe the existing COVID-19 vaccines still offer strong protection against serious illness, but are slightly less effective against the variants.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week the United Kingdom variant has become the dominant strain in the United States. Kansas health officials continue to identify new variant cases, but the state has so far had a proportionally small amount of the variants.
“They haven’t really taken hold and entrenched and become the dominant strain,” Norman said of the variants in Kansas.
In Florida, Michigan, Minnesota and Tennessee, the UK variant accounts for more than 50% of all cases that were sequenced in the last four weeks. All four of those states have case rates in the red zone of federal standards.
The CDC’s variant proportion report issued this week with data as through March 27 did not include numbers for Kansas. In the previous report, which had genome sequencing statistics through March 13, Kansas had the smallest proportion of confirmed cases attributed to the UK variant of any state.
The CDC has identified five variants of concern in the U.S, including mutated viruses first identified in the UK, South Africa and Brazil, as well as two strains originating in California. All but one of the California variants have been confirmed in Kansas.
On Tuesday, the KDHE reported the state’s first case of the Brazil variant, which was identified in Sedgwick County. Between Monday and Wednesday, three total variant cases were reported statewide. McPherson County had two cases of the UK variant, making it the 23rd county in the state with at least one confirmed variant case.
Sedgwick County has had 47 confirmed variant cases, more than one-third of the 136 cases statewide. Locally, 46 of the cases were from the UK strain.
The KDHE urged people to wear masks, social distance, quarantine when appropriate, get vaccinated and follow other pandemic health recommendations.
“In addition to following these healthy behaviors, this finding also shows the importance of getting tested for COVID-19,” Adrienne Byrne, the Sedgwick County health director, said in a statement announcing the first Brazilian variant case.
Norman said continued vigilance is required with COVID-19 testing and wastewater testing for variants. He attributed the state’s comparatively good indicators to “the things that we know are successful” at slowing the spread of the virus, telling Kansans to “keep up the great work.”
“At least in the state of Kansas, the widespread wildfires are essentially put out,” he said. “But there’s still hot spots that flare up, and the testing will tell us where those flare-ups are occurring so we can go in and put them out.”
COVID cases, admissions, deaths in Kansas
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment on Wednesday reported statewide pandemic totals of 305,320 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases, 9,911 hospitalizations, 2,735 ICU admissions and 4,944 deaths. Since Monday, there have been 601 new cases, 39 new hospitalizations, 13 new ICU admissions and 14 new deaths.
Sedgwick County, according to the KDHE, has had 55,347 cases, 1,641 hospitalizations, 513 ICU admissions and 738 deaths. The increases since Monday were 149 new cases, 10 new hospitalizations, four new ICU admissions and three new deaths.
State statistics show case rates are highest among teenagers and younger adults.
“There’s still a lot of asymptomatic infections going on out there,” Norman said. “We know that it’s also in younger people, and it’s interesting because the younger people are also the more vaccine-hesitant.”
There were 18 new coronavirus clusters reported statewide over the past week, according to the KDHE’s weekly cluster update on Wednesday. There were 14 more deaths attributed to outbreaks: 13 at nursing homes and one at a government office.
The new outbreaks included four private businesses, three private events, three long-term care facilities, two religious gatherings, two government offices, one daycare, one health care facility, one school and one sport.
The KDHE reported 44 active outbreaks in the state — an increase from 30 a week ago — but identified only four of the locations.
A Manhattan daycare, the Center for Child Development at Kansas State University, has had six cases in the last two weeks. The DMV government office in Olathe has had five cases in two weeks. Hutchinson business Portfolio Recovery Associates and Lenexa business Schlagel and Associates each have had nine cases in two weeks.
Sedgwick COVID data
Sedgwick County Health Department data showed one new school-related cluster, one new business cluster and one new long-term care home cluster so far this month.
As of Wednesday, the KDHE reported 1,617,994 total doses administered out of 1,937,790 doses distributed to the state.
There have been 1,019,650 people vaccinated with a first shot, or 35% of the population. There have been 649,747 people fully vaccinated, or 22.3% of the population.
Since Monday, 24,034 first shots were administered and 33,138 more people were fully vaccinated.
The Sedgwick County Health Department has administered 177,802 total doses and fully vaccinated 73,362 people. Over the last two days, the health department administered 8,933 shots and completed the inoculations of 7,502 people.
Kansas is doing an “outstanding job” on the vaccine roll-out and vaccination rates, said Dr. Catherine Satterwhite, regional health administrator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Satterwhite, an epidemiologist who was previously a professor at KU hospitals, said Wednesday that work needs to be done in Kansas to convince people who are vaccine-hesitant that vaccines are safe and effective. Federal health officials are using “shared stories” from people of trust to help with that.
This story was originally published April 14, 2021 at 3:50 PM.