Wichita hospitals report more COVID-19 patients than they’ve had since January

Sedgwick County reported more hospitalized COVID-19 patients Monday than in any weekly update since late January, according to new data from the Sedgwick County COVID-19 dashboard.

As of Monday, 177 hospitalized patients were battling the virus, up from 147 on Aug. 16. The number of COVID-19 patients in the ICU ticked down from 56 to 53.

The patient count actually fell slightly from the report County Manager Tom Stolz gave The Eagle last Wednesday: 182 in the hospitals and 61 in the ICU.

County Health Officer Dr. Garold Minns’ proposed mask mandate for indoor public spaces was effectively rejected by the Sedgwick County Commission on a party-line vote Friday, with Republican commissioners voting to receive and file Minns’ order without taking action.

Wichita hospital status remains at red (critical) after being changed from yellow last Wednesday at the advice of hospital officials.

Wesley Medical Center spokesperson Dave Stewart said he could not provide a demographic breakdown of COVID-19 patients in the hospital Monday.

“It’s overwhelmingly unvaccinated, and that has not changed, and we don’t expect that to change,” Stewart said.

Last week, Stewart told The Eagle that 97% of their COVID-19 patients were unvaccinated.

Asked about the number of children being hospitalized with the virus, Stewart said Wesley has seen “a bit of an uptick.”

“I do not think at this point that we’ve seen as big of an increase as say, the Kansas City market and other markets that are reporting, but we’ve definitely seen a slight uptick in pediatric patients,” he said.

Last Monday, Children’s Mercy hospital in Kansas City reported that rising COVID-19 cases in the metropolitan area had driven the hospital to full capacity.

Ascension Via Christi spokesperson Roz Hutchinson said that as of Monday morning, St. Francis and St. Joseph hospitals had a combined 93 COVID-19 patients, 20 of whom are in ICU beds.

At Friday’s county commission meeting, Dr. Amy Seery, who works in Ascension Via Christi’s pediatric ICU, said the number of childhood cases in the hospital is “exploding.”

“I am seeing more COVID kids admitted now than ever previously before,” Seery said.

But Hutchinson said that between Wichita’s two Ascension Via Christi hospitals, there are currently no COVID-19 patients.

“What we’ve had is a handful every week lately,” Hutchinson said. “They come in, their stays have typically been short. The [pediatric] unit was pretty packed and now they’ve got a bunch of discharges so we’ll have spaces filling up, but they tend to fill up just as soon as they open up.”

On Friday afternoon, County Commissioner Sarah Lopez said in a Facebook post that hospitals will soon start to feel the impact of in-person schooling.

“Two weeks after something big (like schools starting) we could see an uptick in positivity rate. Two weeks later, our hospitals start to see higher inpatient numbers and then two more weeks is when we see an increase in deaths,” Lopez said.

She said if case numbers continue to rise, hospitals will soon be overwhelmed.

“Our hospitals can’t continue to see the rise in cases we are now and be able to provide quality care for everyone,” Lopez said. “It just won’t be possible much longer at this rate.”

This story was originally published August 23, 2021 at 2:52 PM.