An additional two deaths related to COVID-19 were reported on Wednesday morning in Wyandotte County, according to the Unified Government’s COVID-19 website.
The total is now 12 deaths in Wyandotte County.
Six of the 12 deaths have occurred in connection with COVID-19 at the Riverbend Post-Acute Rehabilitation Center near 78th and Freeman, according to the Unified Government Health Department.
There were 228 positive COVID-19 cases in Wyandotte County at 11 a.m. Wednesday, according to the UG COVID-19 website. In all, 56 persons were reported hospitalized. This compares with 190 cases reported Tuesday morning, and 53 hospitalizations.
Forty-eight residents of Riverbend have tested positive as of Wednesday morning, and seven residents were in the hospital, according to Janell Friesen, communications coordinator for the UG Health Department.
Eight staff members at Riverbend tested positive, she stated.
Friesen said the Health Department is currently investigating how COVID-19 started at Riverbend. They have not completed a determination of the source or cause of it at this time. At this time there do not appear to be any links between the clusters of COVID-19 cases from church gatherings in Wyandotte County and Riverbend, she added.
Also, they have not seen any additional cases from the Life Care Center of Kansas City, she stated. The center reported one case of COVID-19 in March, in which a resident died at a hospital.
Statewide, 900 positive COVID-19 cases were reported in Kansas on Tuesday.
In another development, the operator of the route 104 RideKC bus tested positive for COVID-19 and operated the bus on April 1, according to health authorities. Those who rode the bus between 12:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. April 1 may have been exposed to COVID-19, and should monitor themselves for symptoms such as fever, dry cough and shortness of breath. If they develop symptoms, they should call their doctors or clinics, report it online at www.wycokck.org/COVID-19, or call 3-1-1, according to the Health Department. The bus operator has been isolated at home since April 1. The bus goes through parts of eastern and southern Wyandotte County, including Argentine, and a map of the route is at https://ridekc.org/assets/uploads/route-maps/104mwk.png.
Doctors at KU Health System ‘cautiously optimistic,’ urge residents not to meet on Sunday
While the number of cases showed an increase in Wyandotte County on Wednesday, doctors at the University of Kansas Health System said they were cautiously optimistic.
They still had the same number of patients, in the low to mid-30s, at the hospital as they did on Tuesday, and about the same number of people on ventilators, according to Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at the KU Health System. The number of critically ill patients was about the same as the day before, he said.
He said projections may change from week to week and from day to day, and there are many different projections out there for Kansas case numbers and death numbers.
“We’re happy we’re staying at the same number,” Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer at the KU Health System, said about the numbers of patients there. They’re not sure if the stay-at-home order is working or if the illness is on a slow ramp-up. The stay-at-home order started March 24 in Wyandotte County. The governor’s stay-home order continues through April 23.
No matter the reason, there is still a need to stay home during the holidays this week, he said. Dr. Stites said they are strongly recommending that Wyandotte County and other counties in the area stay sheltered in place.
“Don’t try to bring large groups together,” he said. Bringing young children together with older members of the family who don’t live in the same household is not a good idea. The COVID-19 positive cases could increase if families and groups get together this week.
“All it takes is one large social gathering, one large service people want to go to on Sunday,” he said.
Dr. Hawkinson said the increased numbers in general, including statewide numbers, are concerning because areas such as western Kansas have less resources.
Dr. Carrie Wieneke, a KU Health System obstetrician, said that while data is somewhat limited, doctors currently believe that pregnant women are at no increased risk than the general public of getting COVID-19. She said the same practices of good hygiene, washing hands and social distancing, are recommended.
Currently, COVID-19 doesn’t appear to be passed to a baby through the delivery process, Dr. Wieneke said. There also is no change in the recommendations for delivery, she added. She said that obstetricians are trying to schedule appointments together for pregnant women, for example, doing an office visit and ultrasound at the same time and not coming back into the office multiple times in the same week.
While there are no positive COVID-19 cases currently on the labor and delivery unit, there is a separate area that has been set aside in case they do have a positive patient in the future, she said.
The KU Health System news conference is online at https://www.facebook.com/kuhospital/videos/271438813861945/.
The Wyandotte County COVID-19 website is at https://alpha.wycokck.org/Coronavirus-COVID-19-Information.
The state’s COVID-19 website is at https://govstatus.egov.com/coronavirus.
The CDC COVID-19 website is at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html.