The Community Blood Center of Greater Kansas City is seeking donations of blood plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients.
The donations will build a public bank of plasma that may be used to treat other patients with advanced illness, according to the CBC.
During this process, the plasma is given to the patient with advanced illness in the hopes that the donor has produced antibodies that will help the patient recover more rapidly, and reduce the need for more intensive care unit beds and ventilators.
Donors must have tested positive for COVID-19 and be symptom-free for 14 days. One donation can be used to treat two to three patients struggling with severe cases of COVID-19. Interested donors can sign up at savealifenow.org/cpdonor.
The CBC has closed down all mobile blood drives, and is accepting blood donations by appointment at www.savealifenow.org. There are no walk-ins. More information is available at the website. The main CBC-GKC office is at 4040 Main St., Kansas City, Missouri, telephone 816-753-4040.
Kansas had 2,025 total positive cases and 107 total deaths on Tuesday, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. (KDHE map)
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said the state faces difficult budget decisions in the weeks and months ahead in the wake of a $1.27 billion budget deficit shortfall for the next two fiscal years.
The state received consensus revenue estimates on Monday, and Gov. Kelly said she plans to meet with the state’s budget director this week to discuss the budget, including managing the cash flow.
The shortfall is largely attributed to the effects of stopping the economy in order to stop the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
At a news conference Tuesday, Gov. Kelly said she had already instructed state agencies to freeze non-COVID related hires and identify cost savings to help protect critical investments as much as possible.
“We are cautiously optimistic that we may be able to make some strategic decisions that help offset painful cuts to critical services in the current fiscal year,” Gov. Kelly said.
As the state came into this process, the state had about $900 million in its ending balance, which provides a nice cushion, Gov. Kelly said.
It appears that the state will end this fiscal year with about $200 million in the ending balance, and it’s next year that looks bad, she said. The state could lose $650 million in revenue next year, with the carryover of $200 million it would leave the state about $450 million down.
Gov. Kelly said she includes education in the critical or essential services, and would do everything possible to avoid making cuts to those areas.
The state may be looking at shifting funds around, Gov. Kelly said.
The governor said the federal government Is talking about additional stimulus funds and she hopes some will help states dealing with shortfalls.
Gov. Kelly also said she will work with legislators on the budget.
The state Department of Labor has completed the expansion of unemployment benefits from 16 to 26 weeks, Gov. Kelly said. The extension applies automatically to all claims filed on or after Jan. 1. The expansion was approved earlier by the Legislature.
As of today, KDHE has announced individuals only need two symptoms to be tested for COVID-19, she said, not including fever. The goal is to get more testing done quickly, so treatment can be initiated earlier and contact tracing can begin.
Gov. Kelly said the guidelines for reopening from the White House showed three phases.
Kansas hasn’t gotten to the first phase yet, which includes testing and getting the positive cases out of the general population, then doing contact tracing. Those need to be in place before the state can think about opening the doors. She said the state is working hard trying to get its federal partners to provide the testing.
The KDHE is currently adding to the state’s ability to do contact tracing, she said, with the 400 additional positions.
The state has set midnight May 3 as the time it would like to lift the statewide stay-at-home order, and then it would be up to the local health departments if they would like to do something different, she said.
The state is working on a plan to announce before May 3, she said. However, if everything is not in place, including testing and contact tracing, the state may have to extend the reopening date, she added.
Gov. Kelly also said they need to see that the number of cases has plateaued and the curve is starting to come down. On Tuesday, the number of new cases was 39, which is less than the previous day’s new cases, she said.
Gov. Kelly said the state is working with businesses, including the Kansas Chamber, on guidelines for reopening. Different industries or sectors could have different guidelines, she added.
She said she understands that people are tired, and it is frustrating to not be able to go to work and have a paycheck coming in. While she understands that, she said she has to continue to act in the best interests of all Kansans and their health.
On Tuesday, there were 2,025 positive COVID-19 cases in Kansas, and a total 107 deaths, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Cases were up 39 from Monday. Sixty-nine counties reported positive cases. The number of deaths was up seven.
Wyandotte County reported 430 cases, with 44 deaths, at 3:10 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Unified Government COVID-19 website.
Other counties’ reports, according to the KDHE: Johnson County, 384 cases; Sedgwick (Wichita area), 251 cases; Ford (Dodge City area), 187 cases; Leavenworth County, 136 cases; Shawnee (Topeka area), 93 cases; Seward (Liberal area), 80 cases; Coffey (Burlington area), 47 cases; Douglas (Lawrence area), 43 cases; Finney (Garden City area), 41 cases; Lyon County (Emporia area), 38 cases; Riley County (Manhattan area), 28 cases.
Wyandotte County reported 426 positive COVID-19 cases, with 44 deaths, at 8:25 a.m. Tuesday. (UG COVID-19 webpage)
by Mary Rupert
The positive COVID-19 cases in Wyandotte County declined slightly over the weekend as the Unified Government Health Department adjusted the numbers to account for a change in the way that they are defining confirmed cases.
The positive cases in Wyandotte County went down slightly from Friday to Saturday, according to the UG COVID-19 page. At 10:15 a.m. Friday, April 17, the total was 395 positive cases. That changed to 381 positive cases at 1:20 p.m. Saturday, April 18.
By Monday, the number of positive cases in Wyandotte County had risen again to 426, remaining at 426 at 8:25 a.m. Tuesday, according to the UG’s COVID-19 webpage.
According to Janell Friesen, a spokesman for the UG Health Department, the reason for the decline over the weekend was a different way of counting cases.
“Due to new criteria from KDHE, we had to change who was being included in the confirmed cases counter,” Friesen stated. “Prior to the release of KDHE’s new probable case definition, all cases we were tracking as positive cases were included in that number. On Friday we learned that some of the cases were ‘probable cases’ under the new definition. The cases identified as probable were taken out of the confirmed cases number.”
The cases being investigated are all assigned a status in the Health Department’s reporting system, and only the cases designated as “confirmed” or “probable” will appear on the dashboard, Friesen stated. “It appears that on Friday and Saturday a few cases may have had the status field missing; this may explain the rest of the discrepancy. The missing status fields have since been corrected,” she stated.
There also was another difference more recently, with the state reporting 427 cases and the UG reporting 426 cases in Wyandotte County on Monday. The UG Health Department staff found out that one case was actually a Missouri resident, so it should not be included in the Wyandotte County numbers, Friesen stated.
Positive case numbers declined by about 14 from Friday morning, left, to Saturday afternoon, right, in Wyandotte County because of a change in the way they are defining confirmed cases. (From UG COVID-19 page)
