Sedgwick County Commission keeps its coronavirus strategy after governor’s call-out

After being called out by Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly for its coronavirus response earlier this week, the Sedgwick County Commission will continue its hands-off approach to combating COVID-19, taking no action Wednesday to change its strategy.

Coronavirus cases are climbing in Sedgwick County. The number of people known to be carrying the disease have more than doubled — from 118 to 271 — in the three weeks since the County Commission abandoned the governor’s phased reopening plan. Active cases are now the highest they’ve been since the disease was detected in Wichita.

Kelly on Monday blamed the increase on the County Commission’s decision to lift all coronavirus-related restrictions on businesses and individuals.

The county’s health officer, Dr. Garold Minns, said Wednesday that the increase is concerning, but he doesn’t support closing businesses and didn’t recommend putting any restrictions in place.

“We’re trying to get through this without causing any more economic damage,” Minns said.

Instead, he said businesses should continue encouraging social distancing, people should wear masks in shared public spaces and the county should focus its efforts on testing and contact tracing.

Without a vaccine or reliable medicine to treat COVID-19, “we have limited tools in our toolbox to keep this at bay,” he said.

“We need to do what we can to keep this virus from increasing. In the last week, we have seen the cases going up. We want to stop that. We don’t want to go up higher, and I’ve given you the three tools we have to do that.”

Those three tools are travel restrictions, which Minns said are difficult to enforce; testing, screening and contact tracing, and then isolation of those who have come in contact with the disease; and social distancing practices.

Minns said the increase is not completely unexpected with the lifting of restrictions coupled with large gatherings and protests since Memorial Day weekend.

Minns also debunked a common misconception about the increase in cases. Some, including Commissioner Michael O’Donnell, have dismissed the rise in cases as a consequence of having more testing available.

“I think it’s a time we need to stay cautious,” Minns said. “I’m not advocating going back on closing businesses or anything like that. But the numbers are up. It’s not all due to clusters. It’s not all due to increased testing.”

Minns also laid out how ineffective antibody testing would be in providing any useful information to the board of health and the general public. Some commissioners have pushed to do antibody testing to find out who has contracted the disease and whether those people are immune.

“Right now, we know in Sedgwick County at most, we’ve had 1,000 cases,” Minns said. “And so the prevalence in this county is so low the antibody test, even if it was good, and we don’t know for sure which vendor has got a good test yet, the false positives are going to be equal (to the positives).”

It remains unclear whether antibodies actually protect people from catching COVID-19 disease a second time. Even if antibody testing worked, some of the tests that have been produced are “worthless,” Minns said.

“The FDA just let the companies release them and said we’ll figure out whether they’re accurate or not later,” he said. “Now, the FDA is pulling them back and saying you have to prove your test is accurate before we let you put it on the market. But they’re already on the market. So even there we have a problem: which company’s antibody tests we’re going to choose ... because some of the companies making it, it’s not worth using. It’s so inaccurate.”

Minns also debunked a claim that the county’s nasal swap viral tests are inaccurate and give false positives, inflating the county’s coronavirus case numbers.

“We don’t feel we have false positives with that test. It may not be 100 percent sensitive. ... Once it’s positive, that means the patient has the disease. It’s not a false positive.”

Minns’ remarks on antibody testing sparked a heated exchange with Commissioner David Dennis, who has been pushing for the County Commission to step in and fund additional testing of any kind, antibody or not.

Dennis challenged Minns on why the county isn’t doing more to find out the prevalence of the disease in Sedgwick County going back to January. The only way to get a historical look would be through antibody testing.

“I believe that’s an answer that we need,” Dennis said. “The state of Kansas is looking for that answer. Why wouldn’t we be looking for that answer at the county level?”

Minns said Kansas Secretary of Health and Environment Dr. Lee Norman advised him to let the state do that work and pay for it.

“If there’s hardly any cases in the entire state compared to how big the state is, 2.8 million (people), there really isn’t much use to dissect down to the individual counties,” Minns said.

“What you’re saying is we just need to wait for the state to decide whether or not they want to test anybody in Sedgwick County, but we have the ability to do it ourselves. Why wouldn’t we do that?” Dennis said.

“I think the state would not neglect testing in Sedgwick County,” Minns said.

“But we can order those today,” Dennis said. “We can vote and say we want to do that. And now instead we’re waiting for the state of Kansas to make up their mind, and who knows when it’s going to happen.

“Why wouldn’t we want to know what the prevalence is in Sedgwick County? That’s my question over and over. Why wouldn’t you make a recommendation that we want to know what the prevalence is in Sedgwick County? That’s what baffles me,” Dennis said.

Minns, who presented and answered questions for 50 minutes, was frustrated he couldn’t supply a sufficient answer.

“I tried to explain it. I’m sorry I haven’t been effective,” Minns said.

This story was originally published June 17, 2020 at 4:51 PM.