Coronavirus update: Kansas variant cases jump almost 13% including two new strains

Cases of COVID-19 variants in Kansas have increased by 23 to 203, or 12.7%, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said Friday.

The two-day increase included two new variants: one in Ellis County and one in Sedgwick County.

The former was a strand first detected in Brazil; the latter in New York. Both are considered “variants of interest,” which are not as severe as the “variants of concern,” which make up the other 201 variant cases in Kansas, according to the KDHE.

Kansas counties with variants also climbed by three to 28. The counties with newly discovered variants are Montgomery, Riley and Clark counties.

Shawnee County has the most variant cases, with 61. The county saw 12 of the 23 newly reported variant cases.

Sedgwick County has the second-most variant cases with 48, up from one on Wednesday. Sedgwick County has the one variant case first detected in New York, also one that was detected in Japan/Brazil, and the rest of the variants were first discovered in the United Kingdom.

“We know that we have variants in our community; we have cases that aren’t, most of our cases are not variants,” Sedgwick County health director Adrienne Byrne said during a Thursday media briefing. “But we are starting to have more cases that are variants, so it’s just all part of why it’s so important to continue to wear masks and social distance and then wash your hands.”

Vaccinations can also help protect Kansas from seeing a surge similar to Michigan, where the emergence of the UK variant has contributed to the filling of hospitals, according to University of Kansas Health System Medical Director of Infection Prevention and Control Dr. Dana Hawkinson.

“We know that we can overall continue to be able to protect the health of the United States, protect our supply chains, protect our people that are front-line and essential workers, keep our hospital capacity from things that we are seeing in Michigan — protect us from that — if we continue to get vaccinated, and that is everybody, adults and hopefully, when the final data comes out, children as well,” Hawkinson said during a media briefing Thursday.

Not all COVID-19 cases are tested for variant viruses, which requires genome sequencing.

The UK variant accounted for 41% of all sequenced specimens in the four-state region of Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa, according to the latest Center for Disease Control and Prevention data. Kansas-specific numbers were not available in the data, which was for the two-week period ending March 27.

New numbers

Kansas saw 489 new COVID-19 cases, 43 hospitalizations and five deaths in Friday’s report, bringing the total to 307,372 cases, 10,040 hospitalizations and 4,698 deaths.

Sedgwick County COVID-19 cases increased by 116 to 55,775. Sedgwick County has the second-most cases in the state behind Johnson County’s 57,435. Sedgwick County deaths increased by two since Wednesday to 738, according to the KDHE.

COVID testing

At just over 4%, the rolling 14-day average of positive tests is the highest it’s been in Sedgwick County since late February, assistant county manager Tim Kaufman said Thursday.

“So we want to make sure people continue to get tested,” he said.

The Sedgwick County Health Department (SCHD) offers free testing from 8:30 a.m. to noon, Monday through Friday, at Sedgwick County Park’s Sunflower Shelter, 6501 W. 21st.

KDHE Secretary Dr. Lee Norman has said continued vigilance is required with COVID-19 testing, even if indicators are better than in other states.

“At least in the state of Kansas, the widespread wildfires are essentially put out,” he said last week. “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.”

Vaccine hesitancy may prevent herd immunity

KDHE data show that about 37.5% of the population in Kansas has been vaccinated with at least one dose, and about 10.5% of the population has been diagnosed with the disease. It is unclear how much those groups overlap.

The exact percentage needed for herd immunity is unknown, but most experts say somewhere between 70% and 85% of the population would need be vaccinated. However, about a quarter of the population is hesitant or refusing the vaccine.

Herd immunity “is off the table right now because Americans aren’t getting vaccinated,” said KU’s chief medical officer Dr. Steve Stites, citing the opinion of Mayo Clinic vaccinologist Greg Poland.

Past infections are not adequate for long-term herd immunity.

While people who had COVID do have a short period of immunity, re-infections are happening. Doctors say people who had COVID should still get vaccinated because it offers a stronger degree of protection.

“There’s still widespread community transmission,” Stites said. “Without vaccination, if you’ve had COVID, your immunity will wane. And it will wane relatively rapidly unless you get another infection with SAR-CoV-2 and run all the risks from that.”

Vaccine hesitancy is affecting both cities and rural counties as supply outpaces demand.

“The vaccine hesitancy, it is good that people are concerned about what they put into their body, just like food and whatever else,” said Byrne, the county health director. “So we just answer any questions that they have about that and any concerns. Then really recommend and support them to reach out to someone they trust, their pastor, a medical provider, family or friends who may have gotten the vaccine.”

Changing people’s minds will be a slow process.

“This is going to be hard, and we’re just going to have to keep trying to go arm to arm and twist arms to get vaccines in arms,” Stites said.

Getting vaccines to doctors’ offices would also help, but cold storage requirements are one of the hurdles.

“The simple reality is the No. 1 advocate is a person’s primary care physician,” Stites said. “We have to get those conversations really going between primary care and those who are hesitant. And one of best ways to do it is park the vaccine in a primary care clinic so that when people say yes, you vaccinate them right there.”

Upcoming vaccine clinics

Beginning Monday, April 26, Sedgwick County will start welcoming walk-in vaccinations at the old downtown library. The change comes now that the health department has plenty more doses on hand than in the earlier phases of the roll-out, when demand exceeded supply.

“We just decided if this is any kind of a barrier, we want to remove that barrier to people being able to come in at the spur of the moment,” Byrne said.

Allowing walk-ins may help alleviate technical barriers for those who couldn’t make online appointments. The mass vaccination site had at times accepted 80 or more walk-ins a day instead of turning people away. Mobile vaccination clinics have also used a walk-in model.

The health department has seen an increase in vaccination rates among minority and under-served communities because of targeted outreach, Byrne said.

“All residents are part of our community, and the more people that are vaccinated, the better it is for our community,” she said. “We’re going into select areas knowing which ones are under-served and more vulnerable, just so we can go to where they are and make it more accessible.”

Mobile and Partner Vaccine Clinics

Mobile clinics are offered by SCHD staff and will be open to the first 300 people on a first come, first serve (walk-in) basis.

Partner clinics are offered by community partners and assisted by SCHD staff, by appointment only. Contact the host facility to make an appointment.

This story was originally published April 23, 2021 at 5:16 PM.