Coronavirus update: Kansas sees 81 new cases of variants in two days

COVID-19 variant strain cases jumped more than 33% in two days in Kansas, with Sedgwick County making up 45 of the 81 new variant cases, according to Kansas Department of Health and Environment data released Wednesday.

Sedgwick County has the most variant cases and the most types of strains, the data shows.

Sedgwick County accounts for 112 of the 325 variant cases, or about 34.5%, of all the variant cases. Two more strains were also found in Sedgwick County since Monday, bringing the total to six strains.

Thirty-two counties now have variants after a variant case was found in Reno County.

KDHE Secretary Dr. Lee Norman was asked about the variant cases during a media briefing Tuesday.

“Are you seeing more variants ... especially the (United Kingdom) variant?” Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer at the University of Kansas Health System, asked Norman.

Kansas is seeing more of everything, Norman said.

“We still have less (variant cases) than a lot of other states,” he said. “They still do not predominate in our region, yet. But as we do more and more testing we’re picking up more and more. ”

The United Kingdom strain became the most common variant found across most of the country in March, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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

COVID vaccine

More than 38% of Kansans have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and just over 28% have completed the vaccine. The exact percentage needed for herd immunity is unknown, but most experts say somewhere between 70% and 85% of the population would need to be vaccinated.

New COVID numbers in state

Kansas saw 645 new COVID-19 cases, 55 hospitalizations and eight deaths since Monday, the KDHE reported Wednesday. Kansas now has 308,510 cases, 10,151 hospitalizations and 4,978 deaths.

Sedgwick County COVID-19 cases increased by 133 to 55,999, according to the KDHE, and deaths increased by four to 743.

COVID clusters in Kansas

The number of active clusters dropped by one to 47 since last week. Cluster data is released each Wednesday.

The active clusters have 3,027 COVID-19 cases, 44 hospitalizations and 13 deaths.

There have been a total of 1,920 clusters with 38,365 cases, 1,894 hospitalizations and 2,069 deaths. Those clusters represent about 12.4% of cases, around 18.6% of hospitalizations and roughly 41.5% of deaths.

Long-term care facilities account for the most clusters, cases, hospitalizations and deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. But, of active clusters, private businesses account for the most clusters, corrections have the most cases and meatpacking facilities have the most hospitalizations and deaths.

The KDHE only identified three of the 47 active clusters. Those locations are Holiday Resort Health and Rehab of Salina, which is a long-term care facility with 15 cases in the past two weeks; Spirit AeroSystems Building 2-280J in Wichita, which has eight cases in the past couple of weeks, and Hillsboro High School with 11 cases in the past two weeks.

This story was originally published April 28, 2021 at 2:53 PM.