Many in-person church services in Wyandotte County have been canceled because of efforts to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Wyandotte County is under a “stay-at-home” order. Some faith groups will hold online or video services instead.
We will try to update this list as we learn of more services in the area. Residents are advised to visit the social media page of their church or faith organization, or to call them or email them, to see changes that have been made to regular schedules, or if there are video services planned on Sunday.
The Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, is planning an online Mass at 10 a.m. Sunday, May 3. Archbishop Joseph Naumann will celebrate Mass on https://livestream.com/archkck.
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Kansas City, Kansas, will not hold in-person services Sunday. However, the parish will livestream its services on Facebook. See stpaulskck.org and https://www.facebook.com/StPaulsKCK/. Sunday services will be livestreamed from St. Paul’s at 10 a.m. May 3.
Information about other church services in Wyandotte County may be available from the church’s social media page. To send in items for the Faith News, email information to [email protected]. Please include your name and contact information.
More than 100 years ago, in the fall of 1918, Kansas and Wyandotte County, along with the rest of the world, faced a severe challenge because of the Spanish Influenza.
Front page stories in The Kansas City Kansan, told of the pandemic with such headlines as “ALL STATE CLOSED,” “FLU SPREADS FAST” and “A FLU DEATH HERE.”
The present coronavirus pandemic has caused a comparison to the influenza illness in 1918. Many historians who have studied that illness agree that it had its origin in hog pens in Haskell County near Dodge City, Kansas, in early 1918. Young men from southwest Kansas joined the U.S. Army and were sent to Camp Funston which is now Ft. Riley at Junction City, Kansas.
Reports indicated that about 500 soldiers had the flu in early March of 1918 at Camp Funston. Many of these soldiers were sent to Europe to fight in World War I. It didn’t take long for the disease to spread across the globe. By the fall of 1918, the flu made its way back to Kansas.
Dr. Frederick Holmes, a professor of medicine emeritus at the University of Kansas, has researched and written about the disease and the larger role of KU professors had in training and assisting in World War I. He was a featured speaker at a quarterly meeting of the Wyandotte County Historical Society marking the centennial of the end of World War I in the fall of 2018.
The University of Kansas at Lawrence was closed during October 1918. A front page story in the University Daily Kansan told students not to go to class, but were forbidden to leave Lawrence. Students suffering from the flu were ordered to report to the University Hospital. The KU varsity football schedule was cut from eight to four games.
A review of records of the Kansas State Board of Health from 1918 indicated that 2,639 died of influenza. Of those, 298 were from Wyandotte County. Estimates are that more than 646,000 Americans died of the flu—more than twice the number of United States personnel that were killed or wounded in World War I. As many as 30 million persons may have died of the flu worldwide.
Looking at the numbers from the coronavirus, we see that more than 60,000 deaths in the United States have been recorded so far with more than 226,000 deaths worldwide. As of late April 2020, there have been 55 deaths in Wyandotte County, mostly in nursing homes.
The fact that it was called the “Spanish flu” was a misnomer. During World War I, Spain was neutral and therefore was not subject to censorship. It could report all the gory details of war. Its ruler, King Alfonso XIII, was afflicted with the flu. Some people in Spain refer to it as the “French flu.”
Information for this article was taken from history.com and the files of The Wyandotte County Museum and the Kansas State Historical Society.
Murrel Bland is the former editor of The Wyandotte West and The Piper Press. He is editor of History News.
Positive COVID-19 cases in Wyandotte County increased by 53 to a total of 762, according to the Unified Government’s COVID-19 webpage. The number of deaths, 55, stayed the same as Friday. (UG COVID-19 webpage)A graph from the UG’s COVID-19 page showed the number of cases in Wyandotte County. (UG COVID-19 webpage)The state of Kansas reported 297 more COVID-19 cases, for a total of 4,746 on Saturday. (KDHE map)
Wyandotte County reported 762 positive COVID-19 cases on Saturday, an increase of 53 cases since Friday, according to the Unified Government’s COVID-19 webpage.
Positive COVID-19 cases in the state of Kansas increased 297 cases to total 4,746, with one additional death for a total of 131 deaths reported, according to the statistics on the Kansas Department of Health and Environment website.
Wyandotte County no longer had the most cases of COVID-19 in Kansas, as it was passed Saturday by Ford County, reporting 770 cases, according to figures from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Dodge City, Kansas, is in Ford County, and there are meatpacking plant outbreaks reported there.
On Saturday, Johnson County reported 486 cases; and Leavenworth County, 386 cases, according to the KDHE.
Eighty Kansas counties reported positive cases. Some of the other counties reporting large numbers of COVID-19 cases included: Seward County (Liberal area), 539; Finney County (Garden City area), 451; Sedgwick County (Wichita area), 391; Lyon County (Emporia area), 245; and Shawnee County (Topeka area), 126.
Douglas County (Lawrence area) reported 51 cases, and Riley County (Manhattan area) reported 52 cases, according to the KDHE.
The 53-case increase in Wyandotte County was from the figure the UG reported at 4:45 p.m. on Friday, as compared to the number the UG reported at 1:50 p.m. Saturday.
COVID-19 outbreaks in Wyandotte County
Outbreaks of five or more cases in Wyandotte County, are listed on the Wyandotte County COVID-19 Hub page at https://wyandotte-county-covid-19-hub-unifiedgov.hub.arcgis.com/.
From information from the COVID-19 Hub page and from the Unified Government Commission meeting of 5 p.m. Thursday, April 30, were these outbreak locations, with five or more cases, in Wyandotte County included:
• Riverbend Post-Acute Rehabilitation facility, 7850 Freeman Ave., Kansas City, Kansas, 132 cases, 32 deaths. • Life Care Center of Kansas City, 3231 N. 51st St., Kansas City, Kansas, 13 cases, 2 deaths. • Delaware Highlands Assisted Living, 12600 Delaware Parkway, Kansas City, Kansas, 18 cases.
• Miracle Temple Minister’s Conference, 2106 Quindaro Blvd., Kansas City, Kansas, 55 cases, 8 deaths. • Rising Star Baptist Church, 1034 Walker Ave., Kansas City, Kansas, 7 cases, 1 death. • House of Guadalupe Convent, 2226 Troup Ave., Kansas City, Kansas, 6 cases.
• National Beef Packaging, 100 Osage Ave., Kansas City, Kansas, 28 cases, no deaths. • Kellogg’s Bakery, 801 Sunshine Road, Kansas City, Kansas, 19 cases, no deaths. • Premier Custom Foods, 756 Pawnee Ave., Kansas City, Kansas, 10 cases, no deaths. • El Torito Supermarket, 1409 Central Ave., Kansas City, Kansas, 7 cases, no deaths.
• Donnelly College construction site, 608 N. 18th St., Kansas City, Kansas, 8 cases.
