Veterans Day started with a wind chill of 32 degrees at 9 a.m., and temperatures will rise to the mid-50s this afternoon, with sunny skies, according to the National Weather Service forecast.
The cold front that moved in Tuesday dropped temperatures around 20 degrees.
Temperatures for Thursday also will be in the 50s, while Friday’s high will be around 49, the weather service said.
Saturday should see a high near 63, with a chance of rain, according to the weather service.
Today, Veterans Days, it will be sunny with a high near 55, and a southwest wind of 6 mph will become calm in the afternoon, the weather service said.
Tonight, it will be mostly clear, with a low of 36 and a calm wind becoming south southeast around 5 mph after midnight, according to the weather service.
Thursday, it will be sunny with a high near 57, and a south southeast wind of 5 to 10 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon, the weather service said.
Thursday night, it will be mostly clear, with a low of 26 and a north northwest wind of 5 to 10 mph becoming light north after midnight, according to the weather service.
Friday, it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 49, the weather service said. A calm wind will become southeast 5 to 8 mph in the morning.
Friday night, there will be a 50 percent chance of rain, with a low of 41, according to the weather service. Between a tenth and quarter-inch of rain is possible.
Saturday, there is a 30 percent chance of rain before noon, with a high near 63, the weather service said.
Saturday night, it will be mostly clear, with a low of 55, according to the weather service.
Sunday, it will be sunny with a high near 58, the weather service said.
Sunday night, it will be mostly clear, with a low of 35, according to the weather service.
Monday, it will be sunny, with a high near 53, the weather service said.
Monday night, it will be clear, with a low of 36, according to the weather service.
Tuesday, it will be sunny, with a high near 58, the weather service said.
KU hospital seeing record number of COVID-19 cases
On Tuesday, Wyandotte County reported 112 additional COVID-19 cases, for a cumulative total of 8,964. No additional deaths were reported, for a cumulative total of 167. (From COVID-19 webpage)
Hospital beds in Kansas are starting to fill up rapidly, according to state officials.
Gov. Laura Kelly said Tuesday afternoon that cases are spiking up, hospital beds are filling up and some schools are discussing return to remote learning.
Meanwhile, in Kansas City, Kansas, the University of Kansas Health System reported its highest number ever of COVID-19 patients. There were 72 active COVID-19 patients and another 36 in the recovery phase who were in the hospital, for a total of 108. Twenety-five of the active patients were in the intensive care unit.
Dr. Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said at a news conference at 4 p.m. Tuesday that he has been hearing from small and large hospitals across the state.
The KDHE is tracking hospital beds and intensive care unit beds across the state, as well as staffed beds.
Dr. Norman said the KDHE has regular communication with hospitals to see the complete picture on staffing and bed capacity.
Currently, hospitals are working on bonus programs to pick up additional shifts, he said. Transfer of patients is an area of concern, he added.
Kansas hospitals are receiving calls from multiple states, asking them to accept COVID-19 patients because of bed or staffing capacity, according to Dr. Norman.
He said ideally, hospitals would try to “surge within their footprints.” For example, they might try to convert a surgical room into an ICU room. It would be ideal not to transfer patients from one facility to another, he said.
But building onto the facility or putting up a tent outside to handle a surge of patients does not solve staffing problems, which they are most worried about, he added.
“Hospital admissions are the result of community spread,” Dr. Norman said. “We need community support to push down the spread of the virus. We must protect our frontline workers.”
He said it’s important for residents to get a flu vaccine, as that will help reduce illnesses that sometimes take up hospital bed space.
On Monday the KDHE reported 103,553 total cumulative COVID-19 cases. The number of cases rose 5,920 from Friday to Monday, according to figures from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Gov. Kelly on Tuesday said Wichita hospitals are starting to fill up, and all the 208 ICU beds at two major Wichita hospitals are full, with COVID-19 patients occupying 80 of them.
“If a hospital is at capacity for bed space, particularly in the ICU, we run the risk of Kansans not having access to medical care when they need it the most,” Gov. Kelly said.
She said wearing masks, social distancing and avoiding gatherings are important currently to slowing the spread of the virus. She commended Lyon and Jefferson county commissions for reversing and voting for mask mandates.
While Gov. Kelly wanted a statewide mask mandate, in her recent meetings with Republican leaders she was asked to wait longer on a mandate while the state’s leaders meet with local leaders to implement local orders. The legislative leaders earlier this year blocked Gov. Kelly’s statewide mandate from taking effect, saying that counties had the right to decide whether they would have mask mandates.
If they can’t come up with a consensus that works locally, they will have to revisit it, she said Tuesday.
“As cases continue to increase, it’s critical that we implement common-sense steps,” Gov. Kelly said.
The governor’s multi-faceted approach to slowing the virus includes a unified testing strategy, working with local leaders and public education.
Gov. Kelly, congratulating President-elect Joe Biden, said her team has already had conversations with the Biden transition team, to make sure they are in a position to continue to have an open line of communication with the federal government to leverage the resources necessary to keep Kansans healthy and to protect the economy.
On Tuesday, Wyandotte County reported 112 additional COVID-19 cases, for a cumulative total of 8,964. No additional deaths were reported, for a cumulative total of 167.
The daily COVID hospitalization rate in the nine-county area, as reported by MARC’s regional COVID-19 hub, is 604. Last week it was 451. It is an increase of 153 per day.
On Tuesday morning, KU Health System reported 72 active COVID-19 patients, including 25 in the ICU, and another 36 COVID-19 patients in the recovery phase and still in the hospital. It was the highest number of COVID-19 patients yet at the hospital.
Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer at KU Health System, said there were not enough staffed beds in Greater Kansas City. While all the beds at KU Health System were staffed, there is a concern that as COVID-19 numbers continue to rise, that it could affect care.
It is a busy time of year for hospitals, he said, as some patients want to get procedures done before the end of the year, and there is sometimes a small influx of flu patients.
The hospital has a few choices right now, neither of which are ideal. They can stop taking transfers or slow them down, which is not the best answer, Dr. Stites said. Or they could stop doing elective surgeries or cut them back, also not good, but they are looking at it.
Typically, outpatient surgery doesn’t take up bed space, just the surgeries of those who will be there three or four days. They will have to discharge as early as they can, but not if the patient is not ready, he added.
Earlier, they had a backlog, as some nursing homes were not taking COVID-19 patients, and patients had to be discharged to nursing homes.
Many hospitals are presently trying to hire as many staff as they can, and hire nurses who work for independent staffing agencies.
They also spend time trying to educate the public on infection control, he said.
“It works, we have to take care of each other,” he said.
“When you ignore the rules, the curve escalates, and we get in trouble,” he said.
Answering a question about people intentionally trying to get COVID-19 for herd immunity, Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at KU Health System, said, “It’s dangerous. We don’t even know you can’t be reinfected.”
They don’t know how long this immunity would last, if they would get the disease again and if it’s going to be worse, he said. The idea of intentionally trying to get COVID-19 is not based on science, he said.
Dr. Stites said the schools of those who wrote a report with the herd immunity idea have discredited the report.
“It’s immoral to suggest that, because you will cause death and destruction you don’t need to do,” Dr. Stites said. “All you have to do is wear a mask.”
With that theory of getting herd immunity by intentionally getting the coronavirus, there could be 200,000 persons infected at once, and a million people could die, he said. Health care resources would be overwhelmed and people having heart attacks and strokes would not be able to get into the hospital, and would die, too, he said. It is a terrible idea.
“Please listen and don’t believe sketchy ideas written by people who don’t understand health care,” he said.
The doctors also discussed the emergency use authorization of monoclonal antibodies, and said KU Health System has been approved for it. They are probably weeks away from it.
He urged people to continue wearing their masks while they are waiting for the new vaccines that are coming out, probably next year.
Masking, distancing, and not meeting in groups will be important this winter, Dr. Hawkinson said.
Dr. Hawkinson said there is a website that helps people assess their risks for attending an event, given the event size and location. The website gives a risk level, an estimated chance that at least one COVID-19 positive individual will be present at an event in a county, given the size of the event.
For example, for an event of 50 people in Wyandotte County, there is a 63 percent chance that at least one COVID-19 positive person will be present, according to the map. For Johnson County, the rate is 72 percent, according to the map. The map originated at Georgia Institute of Technology, Biological Sciences.
A free COVID-19 pop-up test will continue from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11, at Faith Deliverance Family Worship Center, 3043 State Ave., Kansas City, Kansas.
The pop-up test is through Vibrant Health and the Wyandotte County Health Equity Task Force.
UG Health Department COVID-19 tests will be available on Wednesday, Veterans Day, at 7836 State Ave. The site had to close early on Tuesday because of increased demand for testing.
The Unified Government Health Department has moved its COVID-19 testing from the 6th and Ann location to the former Kmart at 78th and State Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas. The hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Tests are free for those who live or work in Wyandotte County. The tests are now saliva COVID-19 tests.
The tests now are open to asymptomatic people as well as those who have symptoms or have been exposed to COVID-19. Check with the UG Health Department’s Facebook page to see if there have been any changes in the schedule. Bring something that shows that you live or work in Wyandotte County, such as a utility bill.
The Health Department building at 6th and Ann will be closed on Wednesday, Veterans Day.
In a change from its previous action not to allow fall sports, the Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Education voted 5-2 Tuesday night to approve winter sports, including basketball.
The Unified Government Health Department had recommended that schools not play indoor winter sports because of the risk of COVID-19.
Practices can begin Jan. 4, with games starting Jan. 18. The action applies only to high schools, according to board members. The board will require all athletes and their parents to sign a statement that they are aware of the Health Department recommendation, whatever it is at the time they sign the waiver.
On Oct. 30 the Health Department issued winter sports guidelines recommending against indoor sports because of the risk of transmitting COVID-19, especially the risk among spectators.
It also issued guidance for school districts that decide to play winter sports, including number of fans allowed and cohorting athletes.
Students have been writing messages to the board and also sending messages to local media that they want to play sports. At one point, they held up signs outside the Health Department letting them know about it.
Yolanda Clark, a board member who voted for winter sports, said her vote means they are trusting parents to make the decisions for their students.
Wanda Brownlee Paige, who voted against the motion, said she wanted everyone to be safe and that meant a lot to her.
Dr. Stacy Yeager said she wanted equity and equality with the other districts around them that have been playing sports successfully. It is very important for students to get that opportunity to play sports, she said.
Dr. Valdenia Winn, who voted against the motion, said the positivity rate remains too high in Wyandotte County, and this pandemic is not under control. Not only Wyandotte County, but also the state of Kansas is now spiking, she said.
Dr. Winn said the UG’s current positivity rate was listed at 17 percent on the UG Health Department website.
District officials presenting the proposal to go ahead with winter sports said they looked at gating criteria from the state of Kansas, and Wyandotte County was listed at lower numbers in the KDHE statistics.
District health officials explained that the KDHE was counting all the tests given to people in the county, even if it was to the same person several times, while the UG Health Department was only counting people one time, even if they had five tests that week. The way the state calculated the figures made the rate appear lower than the UG’s figures, according to the district health official.
Paige said she saw presentations today that said the state and hospitals COVID-19 rates are going off the chart. The U.S. also has a problem and seems to act like they don’t, she said.
Janey Humphries, who voted yes, said since they’re not starting practice until Jan. 4, after the holidays, it would all be subject to change according to what the health conditions are at that time.
Tammie Romstad, district athletic director, presented information that most of the schools in Kansas were playing sports. There were 38 COVID-19 sports clusters in Kansas, which resulted in 338 positive COVID-19 cases, one hospitalization and one death, according to her information.
According to Romstad, Turner, Bonner Springs and Piper schools have told the district they will be playing winter sports, and will wear masks at all times, even while competing. There will be no spectators and each gym will be limited to 45 people only. Bishop Ward High School is planning on playing at home when possible and will wear masks, according to Romstad. There will be no spectators.
At the time they talked to the district officials, Johnson County schools were planning to compete in all sports, wearing masks off the court, with limited spectators, according to Romstad.
The Kansas City, Missouri schools were planning to compete in all sports, with masks on only when they are off courts, and limited spectators.
Romstad said wrestling is not included in the sports that they will start on Jan. 4. Because it is high risk, they will reevaluate it on Jan. 4, she said.
Bowling, swimming and basketball practices will start Jan. 4, according to Romstad.
The athletes will continue conditioning in November through Dec. 18, following mitigation procedures, she said.
The delay of winter sports practices until Jan. 4 will allow for students to focus on their grades, Romstad said. By not competing for the first two weeks, they will have time not to mix the teams until after 14 days of practice, with plenty of time to quarantine players after holiday gatherings, according to Romstad. They will be allowed to compete in post-season with a smaller number of games in the schedule, she said.
There will be no spectators at winter games, Romstad said.
With no spectators allowed, the KCKPS high school games will be live-streamed for home games, according to Romstad.
