KDHE reports most new COVID clusters since Thanksgiving as variants surge in Kansas
Kansas public health officials reported the biggest weekly increase in COVID-19 outbreaks since before Thanksgiving as coronavirus variants continue to spread across the state.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment on Wednesday reported a total of 2,030 clusters of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic — an increase of 90 since May 5.
Wednesday’s report was the largest single-week increase since Nov. 25, 2020, when there were 133 new outbreaks listed, KDHE numbers show. The 90 new clusters reported in the past week is more than every week combined since the middle of March, with 89 new outbreaks reported between March 17 and May 5.
The past week’s new clusters come from a variety of locations. The outbreaks were at 28 private businesses, 27 long-term care facilities, eight group homes, seven schools, five correctional facilities, four sports, four private events, three daycares, two religious gatherings, one government office and one health care facility.
Dr. Lee Norman, the KDHE secretary, said un-vaccinated staff members are to blame for the uptick in outbreaks at nursing homes.
“It’s staff members that are un-vaccinated coming into the facility, and that’s where the outbreaks are coming from,” Norman said during a Thursday media briefing hosted by The University of Kansas Health System. “We have had very few of the residents get sick. It’s been mostly, exclusively, in the un-vaccinated staff members. Which emphasizes the need for having them get vaccinated.”
That was the case at a recent cluster at a Wichita care facility. Last month, an outbreak at the Congregation of St. Joseph Mount St. Mary started with an un-vaccinated staff member. It then spread to five residents, who had all been vaccinated. The staff member got sick. The residents were asymptomatic.
In the last week, the Sedgwick County Health Department has reported one long-term care cluster, one school-related cluster and four business clusters. None of the locations were publicly identified.
The increase in outbreaks comes as faster-spreading coronavirus variants continue to infect people across the state. The KDHE on Wednesday reported 73 new variant cases since Monday, including 24 cases in Sedgwick County.
The state health department’s wastewater surveillance program performs genomic sequencing to monitor variant spread in the state.
“We’re seeing overall that the variants are creeping ahead all the time, it terms of how big the wedge of the pie is that is the variants,” Norman said. “But it’s the same mix, it’s mostly the UK variant.”
Variant cases have now been confirmed in 48 counties, with Pawnee, Dickinson and Jackson counties recording their first cases on Wednesday.
Sedgwick County has the most confirmed variant cases by far, according to KDHE numbers. The county’s 309 total confirmed variant cases primarily come from 208 cases of the UK strain and 87 of the Brazil strain. Kansas has a total of 774 cases, including 557 of the UK variant and 106 of the Brazil strain.
Variant cases are likely under-reported because genome sequencing is performed on a fraction of all COVID-19 cases. The CDC on Tuesday reported that the UK variant was found in about 72% of all samples in the Kansas-Missouri-Nebraska-Iowa region for the two-week period ending April 24. More recent data is not available, and neither is Kansas-specific information.
Vaccine reporting required by CMS
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced Tuesday that long-term care facilities will soon be required to report vaccination status data for residents and staff.
“The new vaccination reporting requirement will not only assist in monitoring uptake amongst residents and staff, but will also aid in identifying facilities that may be in need of additional resources and/or assistance to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic,” federal officials said in a news release.
The data is to be reported weekly to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Healthcare Safety Network. Facility-specific vaccination statistics will be publicly available.
The agency is also requiring facilities to educate and offer the COVID-19 vaccine to residents, clients and staff. Officials said the rule aligns with existing requirements for influenza and pneumococcal vaccines at long-term care facilities.
The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living, which represents more than 14,000 nursing homes and long-term care facilities across the country, supports the reporting requirement.
“Reporting vaccination rates is critical to facilitating in-person visitations in nursing homes, tracking the effectiveness of the vaccines, and helping ensure the industry meets our goal to vaccinate 75 percent of staff by the end of June,” said Dr. David Gifford, chief medical officer of AHCA/NCAL, in a statement.
“It is important that we not judge facilities with low vaccination rates, but instead, seek to understand whether additional resources or outreach can be done to encourage more staff and residents to get the vaccine, or help facilities acquire additional vaccines for new patients and hires.”
Fewer people seeking vaccinations
The KDHE on Wednesday reported more than 2 million total doses administered out of nearly 2.7 million distributed to the state. Since Monday, there were 6,801 more people who got a first shot and 13,361 more people fully vaccinated.
The Sedgwick County Health Department reported 367 first doses administered and 830 more people fully vaccinated between Monday and Wednesday.
Doses are readily available, but hesitancy to get vaccinated has severely cut into the rollout as fewer people in Wichita and Kansas seek the shot.
“We have weeks of inventory in the state of Kansas and additional vaccine in the federal inventory that we could get delivered instantly,” Norman said. “We have actually returned some vaccine to the federal pool to redistribute to those where the uptake is greater.”
State-level data from the White House and CDC show an approximate 81% drop in the number of people getting first shots of COVID-19 vaccines since peaking in early April. The federal report on Monday showed 26,117 first doses administered in Kansas the prior week, down from 133,964 first doses for the week of the April 5 report.
Sedgwick County Health Department data show a 92% drop from the 19,293 first doses administered the week prior to March 29 to the 1,484 administered in the week before Monday’s report. The local health department’s numbers do not include other providers, such as pharmacies.
The recent expansion of emergency use authorization of the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 12-15 is expected to help, but the state and local numbers remain far from the 70% to 85% vaccination rate that public health experts say is needed to reach herd immunity.
White House and CDC numbers show that, as of Wednesday, 43.9% of Kansans have gotten at least a first dose. The fully vaccinated populations are 35.3% of the state and 28.9% of Sedgwick County residents
The fully vaccinated percentage in Kansas currently ranks No. 27 out of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Sedgwick County ranks No. 63 of the 105 counties in Kansas.
COVID indicators
The KDHE on Wednesday reported 411 new cases of COVID-19, 55 new hospitalizations, 24 new ICU admissions and 13 new deaths statewide since Monday. Sedgwick County had 88 new cases, 14 new hospitalizations, five new ICU admissions and no new deaths.
The coronavirus pandemic has now had 311,388 confirmed and probable cases, 10,460 hospitalizations, 2,906 ICU admissions and 5,029 deaths in Kansas. Sedgwick County has had 56,676 cases, 1,779 hospitalizations, 563 ICU admissions and 753 deaths.
Friday’s report from the White House task force, which was publicly released on Tuesday, shows Kansas has better weekly indicators than much of the country. The report includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
Kansas had the fifth-best case rate, the sixth-best hospital admission rate, ranked 13th on lowest death rate and ranked 25th on lowest test positivity
Colorado has the third-worst rate of new cases in the country. The KDHE on Monday added 20 counties in Colorado to the travel quarantine list.
This story was originally published May 13, 2021 at 2:33 PM.