The Unified Government Health Department on Wednesday evening announced three more deaths at the Riverbend post-acute rehabilitation facility near 78th and Freeman in Kansas City, Kansas.
It brings the total number of deaths to 15, an increase of three from April 13.
In all, 116 persons at the facility have tested positive, including 92 residents and 24 staff members, according to the figures from the Health Department.
The number of positive COVID-19 cases from the nursing facility who are now in the hospital increased from five to nine, according to Health Department figures.
“We are very sad to have lost more people to this cluster of COVID-19 cases. We will continue to work closely with Riverbend on investigating and addressing the situation,” the Health Department stated on its social media page.
At 4:40 p.m. April 15, the UG’s COVID-19 page reported 362 confirmed positive cases in Wyandotte County, with 31 total deaths.
Positive COVID-19 cases have been reported in 63 of the 105 Kansas counties. Seven more deaths were reported Wednesday. (KDHE map)This chart showed symptom onset date in blue and date diagnosed in yellow. It usually takes several days between exposure and the date that symptoms begin, then more time between the date symptoms begin and the date it is diagnosed. Some persons in the past were not tested until they were hospitalized. Currently, some patients with symptoms are being tested. (KDHE chart)
Gov. Laura Kelly today extended the stay-at-home order until May 3, while Kansas reported seven more COVID-19 deaths and 68 new cases statewide.
Kansas now has 1,494 confirmed positive COVID-19 cases and a total of 76 deaths, Gov. Kelly said. Sixty-three of the 105 counties have positive cases.
The state’s stay-at-home order originally was in place through April 19.
Gov. Kelly said cases continue to increase, and COVID-19 is spreading into more counties. Internal and external models predict a peak between April 19 and 29, she said.
“Ideally we would like to see a reduction in the number of cases for 14 days before we begin to relax social gathering restrictions,” Gov. Kelly said at a news conference Wednesday.
Between now and May 3, the governor said she would consult with business leaders, health experts economic leaders and other leaders to determine the best path forward so that the state can reopen the economy safely and effectively.
She said she was working with Missouri’s governor as well as with the mayors of cities in the Kansas City area in a regional approach to reduce confusion and help keep communities safe. In addition, she has begun conversations with Colorado’s governor to coordinate efforts that will affect western Kansas.
Gov. Kelly said the state is highly focused on expanding its testing capacity during the next two weeks, so that rapid testing, contact tracing and isolation efforts can be used to prevent local spread and not overwhelm health care facilities.
“It’s true that no state in the nation will truly be able to get back to normal until a vaccine for COVID-19 is developed, manufactured and made widely available,” Gov. Kelly said.
She said they will not be able to lift all restrictions on mass gatherings overnight, but they know how much of a hardship the mitigation efforts have caused for thousands of families and businesses.
“We’re working as quickly as we can to give our communities a plan for the future,” Gov. Kelly said.
Gov. Kelly had received a letter from 40 state legislators asking her to reopen the state.
Since the start, she said she has been aware that at some point they will need to reopen the economy, reopen the schools next fall, reopen businesses and reopen manufacturing, she said.
She said she participated in a phone clal with other governors, and has asked the governors’ association to consolidate all the best practices for reopening from throughout the nation, to serve as a resource.
She said Kansas would reopen “as soon and as safely as we can, so we don’t put people’s lives in danger.”
The governor also said reopening may look different in different counties, and that a rural county’s reopening may be different from Wyandotte County. The local health departments will be able to extend stay-at-home orders once the state order is lifted.
Until they have a vaccine, there will have to be safety and security measures in place, she said. The experts have talked about a year to a year-and-a-half for a vaccine. Gov. Kelly said there will be public health experts at the table in deciding on when and how to lift the stay-at-home order.
“If we don’t do this right, we will do more damage to the economy than you can imagine,” GOv. Kelly said.
She said during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, two cities next to each other, St. Paul and Minnesapolis, Minnesota, took different approaches to reopening. While St. Paul opened up quickly, Minneapolits took more time, reopening more cautiously.
Long after it was over, she said, Minneapolis was far ahead of St. Paul because they did it right, “and that’s what we need to do.”
If they rush opening up again, they will end up doing more harm, she said.
“If we take it slowly, cautiously, we will win that race and be better off in the long run,” Gov. Kelly said.
Dr. Lee Norman, Kansas secretary of health, said Kansas currently is monitoring 26 outbreaks, including 12 in long-term care facilities, two in group living situations, five outbreaks in private companies, one in a correctional facility in Lansing, one in a hospital and five religious gatherings.
At Lansing Correctional Facility there are 44 cases, including 24 staff members and 20 inmates, Dr. Norman said.
While serology testing may be somewhat helpful, Dr. Norman said the Kansas Department of Health and Environment today would send out a health action alert on it to providers today.
“We need to use caution with the use of serology testing at this time,” he said.
A new policy from the Food and Drug Adminsitration allows manufacturers to sell serology kits; however, the test are not FDA-approved, he said.
The FDA has stated these tests are not to be the sole basis to diagnose, and a negative result does not rule out COVID-19, he said. That can be problematic as people want to sue negative serologic test results to say they don’t have COVID-19, but non-FDA approved tests have a very high false negative rate and are not validated by the FDA, Dr. Norman said.
He added that serologies are used to improve diagnoses of infection when combined with molecular tests, including the test that uses a sample from the nose.
Those tests, which required long swabs that were scarce earlier this week, now will be ramped up because of an overwhelming response from dentists, Dr. Norman said. Some dentists are producing the non-natural swabs using equipment they had.
Expanded testing will begin on Thursday in Sedgwick and Thomas counties, with Finney County starting Monday, he said. Expanded testing already is taking place in Wyandotte, Johnson and Leavenworth counties, he said.
The KDHE also is finishing a training module and will bring on 400 volunteer contact tracers to help trace contacts of persons who have tested positive for COVID-19, he said.
Dr. Norman said Kansas has a fairly low death rate per capita compared to other states.
State Department of Labor website
Gov. Kelly also reported that as of today, nearly 150 state employees are answering the phone and trying to assist Kansans who are applying for unemployment benefits at the Kansas Department of Labor.
The state started with 20 employees, she said. The demand remains at historic highs, and on Tuesday alone, the call center received 751,940 calls, she said. She urged anyone who called not to hang up, as it would puot them at the end of the line again and increase wait times.
Also, the state has a team of 30 persons working around the clock to increase website capacity for the Department of Labor and address bugs in the website, she said. The website was down briefly on Tuesday for work. The website received an average of 600 claims pre-pandemic compared to 14,000 claims a day after the pandemic, she said. They have just processed 4,108 initial claims, with 42,895 continued claims processed on Tuesday, a significant jump in capacity, she added.
The Wyandotte County COVID-19 numbers at 4:40 p.m. April 15 included 362 total cases and 31 deaths. There were two more deaths since Tuesday morning in Wyandotte County. The number of positive cases rose by 17. (UG COVID-19 page)A graph showed the number of cases in Wyandotte County. (UG COVID-19 website)A Zip Code map of Wyandotte County showed the most positive COVID-19 cases are in the 66112 area, where the Riverbend post-acute rehabilitation center is. There were 128 cases in 66112; 64 cases in 66109; 55 cases in 66104; 45 cases in 66102; 21 cases in 66106; 15 cases in 66111; 14 cases in 66101; 9 cases in 66012; and 5 cases in 66103. (UG COVID-19 website)
U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, has announced the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has approved 19,915 loans totaling $3.73 billion in federal relief dollars reaching Kansas small businesses.
The SBA was awarded a supplemental funding through the Phase III Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
“Less than three weeks following passage of the CARES Act, almost $4 billion has been dispersed to Kansas small businesses to keep their lights on, save jobs and keep employees on the payroll,” Sen. Moran said in a statement. “Our local lenders have worked tirelessly to get a year’s worth of lending into their customers’ hands in a matter of weeks – despite the many challenges of navigating a new system. Resources for this job-saving program will run out in the next few days. Kansas workers deserve relief and I hope Congress will act quickly to make certain there is sufficient funding.”
