How risky is your county? Kansas releases new COVID-19 rankings
Kansas’ top public health agency is now ranking counties throughout the state on their COVID-19 response.
The ranking system by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment represents a new strategy by Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration to persuade county and city leaders to do more to stop the spread of the coronavirus. KDHE says the ranking will be updated three times a week.
The report says its goal is to “help county commissioners and local leaders stop the spread of COVID-19 in their communities.”
“State, county, and local leaders must work together to stop the spread of the dangerous delta variant and keep Kansas businesses and schools open,” it says. “This data . . . will empower local leaders to take timely actions to keep their communities safe.”
The KDHE report ranks counties in three major categories: vaccinations, cases and testing.
The vaccination rate is based on the percentage of the eligible population that is fully vaccinated as of Jan. 12. Case rates are based on the seven-day rolling average of new COVID cases per day, adjusted for population. Testing rates represent the rate of new daily COVID tests per 100,000 people.
Some local leaders have already acted to try to slow the surge of COVID cases flooding hospitals across the state.
Douglas County, the county KDHE ranked worst in new cases, passed an indoor mask mandate last week. Three cities in Johnson County followed suit, although the Johnson County Commission has yet to pass any further restrictions.
Local leaders in the Wichita area have said there’s not enough public support to pass a mask mandate or further restrictions.
Of the 10 most populous counties in Kansas, Sedgwick County ranks near the bottom (8), driven primarily by its low vaccination rate and high number of new cases.
Here are the rankings of the 10 most populous counties in Kansas based on their rankings by KDHE. Some numbers have been rounded:
| Rank | County | Vaccinations (rank) | Daily cases (rank) | Testing (rank) |
| 1 | Wyandotte | 58% (5) | 128 (5) | 1,218 (3) |
| 2 | Douglas | 62% (2) | 184 (10) | 1,422 (1) |
| 3 | Johnson | 76% (1) | 141 (6) | 946 (6) |
| 4 | Shawnee | 62% (3) | 142 (7) | 994 (5) |
| 5 | Leavenworth | 61% (4) | 109 (4) | 787 (8) |
| 6 | Reno | 51% (7) | 94 (3) | 929 (7) |
| 7 | Saline | 51% (8) | 88 (2) | 669 (9) |
| 8 | Sedgwick | 54% (6) | 169 (9) | 1,001 (4) |
| 9 | Butler | 49% (9) | 148 (8) | 1,219 (2) |
| 10 | Riley | 39% (10) | 36 (1) | 552 (10) |
The report, which includes rankings for all 105 counties in Kansas, is posted below. The Eagle found some of the counties have been incorrectly numbered in the overall ranking. For example, the KDHE report skips from 9th place to 12th in the rankings, when it should have ranked the following county 10th and adjusted accordingly. That error is consistent throughout the report for counties that tied in their rankings.
This story was originally published January 14, 2022 at 5:00 AM.