Sedgwick County health officials recommend masks amid COVID surge

The Sedgwick County Health Department is recommending people wear a mask indoors in public regardless of vaccination status, a county spokesperson said Friday.

The health department decided on the recommendation after seeing an alarming trend, with the county going from the low to medium category of community COVID-19 spread last week and then from medium to high this week. It’s the first time the county has been in high since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started the measure in February, according to Sedgwick County spokesperson Stephanie Birmingham.

Another alarming trend, she said, is the increasing percentage of tests coming back positive. It went from around 5% at the end of April, was close to 10% at the end of May and was at 18% on July 20. The highest number in Sedgwick County’s fight with the virus was about 23% in January.

Sedgwick County is one of 41 Kansas counties listed in the high rate category for community spread of COVID, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s the only level where masks are recommended indoors for everyone. The number of Kansas counties in the highest category equates to about 39% of counties in the state.

Nationwide, about 42% of counties fall under the highest category. Across the country, cases are on a slight uptick, and although it’s lower than in previous spikes, increasing cases can compound quickly.

The uptick in Kansas and across the nation is being driven by BA.5, an Omicron subvariant. The subvariant accounted for roughly 78% of nationwide cases in the week ending on July 16, the latest week available. The COVID-19 vaccine is less effective on the strain.

The rate of community spread the CDC assigns to each county is based on three factors: new COVID cases per 100,000 people over the last week and the higher of either new hospital admissions per 100,000 over a week or percent of staffed inpatient beds with COVID-19 patients over a seven-day average.

Butler and Reno counties are in the medium category. Harvey, Kingman and Sumner are in the high category. Besides Atchison County, every county that borders Missouri is at the worst level.

This story was originally published July 22, 2022 at 4:12 PM.