Category: COVID-19

Doctors warn that reopening society early could mean more deaths, and an overwhelmed health care system

Wyandotte County COVID-19 deaths rose by two from Tuesday, and the number of positive cases rose by 16, according to statistics on the UG COVID-19 website at 10:25 a.m. Wednesday. (UG COVID-19 website)
A graph showed the increase of COVID-19 cases in Wyandotte County. (UG COVID-19 website)

As a national discussion weighs reopening the national economy against sacrificing lives to do so, numbers of positive COVID-19 cases in Wyandotte County and the number of deaths continue to rise slightly.

Wyandotte County reported 361 positive cases and 31 deaths on Wednesday morning, an increase of 16 cases and two deaths since Tuesday morning, according to the Unified Government’s COVID-19 webpage.

Kansas reported 69 deaths and 1,426 positive cases on Tuesday morning, according to Kansas Department of Health and Environment statistics.

KU Health System had 34 positive COVID-19 patients on Wednesday morning, with 11 in the intensive care unit, and nine patients are on ventilators, Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director, infection control and prevenetion at KU Health System, said. Some patients have been discharged. The number of positive COVID-19 patients is up slightly from Tuesday.

If society reopens its normal way of life too early, there would be concerns, according to the KU doctors.

“The volume of COVID-19 that we would have would overwhelm our health care system,” Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer of KU Health System, said.

A national projection from the University of Washington has stated that Kansas could have more than 500 deaths after the peak of COVID-19, and Missouri could have 1,700 or more deaths. There are many variables in the projections, according to the doctors, and there are a lot of other projections with different numbers, also.

News out of Japan this morning, where they have reopened their society, reported that the health officials are concerned that they have overwhelmed their system, Dr. Stites said. Numbers of COVID-19 cases could rise again.

He said they are hearing from doctors in New York that it would not be like anything they have known, that there would be a grave toll, and they would be unable to keep up with the burden of the disease.

He said he wouldn’t know how to answer a question about the downside of people staying home, such as increased domestic violence, depression, anxiety and negative economic effects. Those things are true, and he said they are discussing the situation with local and state leaders how to keep society safe so they can reopen.

“We will have imperfect answers,” Dr. Stites said. “In that imperfect world, I think you do the next right thing that is in front of you. And even when we start to open up society, which we’ll have to do, and providing there’s not a miracle therapy or cure or vaccination available, as we reopen that we’ll still have to respect the rules of infection control to prevent the disease spreading. If we unleash it all at once,” he said, “some of us will get through it, some of us won’t, and the number who won’t will be a lot higher than it is right now. That’s the challenge, and that’s tough math.”

Dr. Hawkinson said the virus will affect people physically, psychologically and spiritually, bringing out new issues that people may not have had before.

Dr. Stites said that KU Health System is part of a national study of antibodies in patients.

Dr. Ronald Chen, radiation oncology chair at KU Health System, said that there is a COVID-19 research group at KU Health System. There is currently an effort to bring a new drug to trial at KU Health System, he said. Also, KU Health System is trying to design a study on the effect of COVID-19 on cancer care, he said.

To view the KU doctors’ news conference, with more information on a variety of COVID-19 topics, visit https://www.facebook.com/kuhospital/videos/710469366424922/.

The UG’s COVID-19 webpage is at https://alpha.wycokck.org/Coronavirus-COVID-19-Information


The Kansas COVID-19 resource page is at https://govstatus.egov.com/coronavirus.


The CDC COVID-19 page is at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html

First group of KC COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund grant recipients includes some Wyandotte County organizations

Several Wyandotte County organizations are on the list of grant recipients that will receive aid from the Kansas City Regional COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund.

The fund is distributing more than $2.6 million in aid to 56 area nonprofits for housing support, food assistance, access to health care and other critical human services, according to an announcement.

“At a time when our region is facing an unprecedented demand on human services, I’m proud this partnership has seen everyone in the community coming together to take action and make a real difference,” said United Way of Greater Kansas City president and CEO Brent Stewart. “The programs and organizations benefitting from this first round of grants are those on the front lines of providing the most urgent of basic needs. They are invaluable, and we thank them for their efforts. And, we thank each and every individual and organization whose contributions made this possible.”

“Thanks to our community’s generosity, the fund was able to quickly collect and deploy resources to address critical needs in vulnerable populations,” said Debbie Wilkerson, President and CEO, Greater Kansas City Community Foundation. “But this is only the beginning. There are more rounds of grants to come.”

Additional grants will be released on a rolling basis as fundraising continues and needs are identified throughout all phases of the crisis.

Initial grant recipients:

  • Avenue of Life
  • Bishop Sullivan Center
  • Catholic Charities of Kansas City-St. Joseph
  • Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas
  • Center of Grace
  • City Union Mission
  • Community Action Agency of Greater Kansas City
  • Community LINC
  • Community Services League
  • Connecting For Good
  • Cross-Lines Community Outreach
  • Della Lamb Community Services
  • Don Bosco Centers
  • East Central Kansas Economic Opportunity Corp.
  • El Centro
  • Fairmount Community Center
  • Feed Northland Kids
  • Food Equality Initiative
  • Friends of Yates
  • Giving the Basics
  • Grandview Assistance Program
  • Guadalupe Centers
  • Harvesters
  • Health Partnership Clinic, Inc.
  • Heart of America Indian Center
  • Heart to Heart International
  • Hillcrest Ministries of MidAmerica, Inc.
  • Hope Faith
  • Johnson County Mental Health Center
  • Kansas City’s Medicine Cabinet
  • KC CARE Health Center
  • Kearney Enrichment Council
  • Kim Wilson Housing
  • Leavenworth Interfaith Community of Hope
  • Lee’s Summit Social Services
  • Love INC of Clay County
  • Metro Lutheran Ministry
  • Newhouse
  • Northland Shepherd’s Center
  • PACES, Inc.
  • Platte Senior Services, Inc.
  • reStart, Inc.
  • Rose Brooks Center
  • Safehome
  • Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center
  • SAVE, Inc.
  • Sharon Lee Family Health Care
  • Shepherd’s Center KC Central
  • Shepherd’s Center of Raytown
  • Swope Health Services
  • Synergy Services, Inc.
  • United Inner City Services
  • Veterans Community Project
  • Vibrant Health
  • Working Families’ Friend
  • Wyandot Center

The Advisory Board of the Kansas City Regional COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund

The 20-member Advisory Board is made up of foundation, civic and community representatives who oversee the Fund. These individuals have both an understanding of the community’s needs and the charitable organizations that work to serve those needs, and they work together to assess potential grant recipients. The members of the board include:

• Mayra Aguirre, Hall Family Foundation
• Julie Brewer, United Community Services of Johnson County
• Rita Cortes, Menorah Heritage Foundation
• Micah Rose Emerson, Community Representative
• Carla Gibson, REACH Healthcare Foundation
• Geoff Jolley, LISC Greater Kansas City
• Jan Kauk, North Kansas City School Board of Education
• Randy Lopez, Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools Board Member
• Jim MacDonald, United Way of Greater Kansas City
• McClain Bryant Macklin, Civic Council of Greater Kansas City
• Maureen Mahoney, Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas
• Denise St. Omer, Greater Kansas City Community Foundation
• Rachel Russell, Community Representative
• Debbie Sosland-Edelman, The Sosland Foundation
• Carrie Stewart, William T. Kemper Foundation, Commerce Bank Trustee
• Qiana Thomason, Health Forward Foundation
• Randy Vance, Sunderland Foundation
• David Warm, moderator, Mid-America Regional Council
• Michele Watley, Shirley’s Kitchen Cabinet
• Carey Wilkerson, The H & R Block Foundation and the Marion and Henry Bloch Charitable Foundation

Donor update
Since the launch of the Fund in March, dozens of new organizations have made significant donations to the fund.

These funders include:

 Academy Bank
 Ann and Gary Dickinson Family Charitable Foundation
 Bank of America
 Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City
 Burns & McDonnell Foundation
 Cerner Foundation, First Hand
 Cloud L. Cray Foundation
 CommunityAmerica Foundation
 Compass Minerals
 Coventry Family Foundation
 Dave and Dee Dillon Charitable Fund
 Deloitte
 Delta Dental of Missouri
 Evergy
 Francis Family Foundation
 Gautreaux Family Fund
 GEHA
 General Motors
 Gray Family Foundation
 Hulston Family Foundation
 Humana
 JDC Family Foundation
 Jedel Family Foundation
 JMW & Associates, LLC
 John W. & Effie E. Speas Memorial Trust, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee
 Kansas Gas Service, a Division of ONE Gas
 Kao Family Foundation
 Kiewit
 Mr. and Mrs. Isidor Wachstein & their son Julius & Thau Family Trust Fund
 Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation
 Parris Communications
 PNC Foundation
 Price Brothers Charitable Foundation
 PWC Charitable Foundation
 Steve and Carole Price Charitable Foundation
 Stuart A. Schlemmer Charitable Fund
 Tension Envelope Corporation
 The Abe & Anna Bograd Memorial Trust
 The DeBruce Foundation and Paul and Linda DeBruce
 The Granary Fund in memory of Pat and Cliff Jones
 The Ronald D. Deffenbaugh Foundation
 Tim and Elin Murphy Family Foundation
 TruckMovers
 U.S. Bank
 VanTrust Real Estate
 William G. McGowan Charitable Fund

KCC extends order suspending utility disconnects until May 15

The Kansas Corporation Commission has extended the emergency order suspending utility disconnects until May 15, according to a news release today.

The action was taken at a meeting this morning because of the continuing threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the KCC.

The action is expected to offer relief to persons experiencing hardship from the COVID-19 virus. The previous order, issued March 16, was set to expire April 15.

The directive covers all electrical, natural gas, water and telecommunications utilities under the KCC’s jurisdiction.

“The difficulties associated with COVID-19 are far from over. As Kansans continue to face both health and financial challenges, it is critical that they have continued access to utility services in their homes to ensure public safety,” Commission Chair Susan Duffy said in a news release.

This includes some gas companies and telephone companies that serve Wyandotte County.

The Board of Public Utilities is not under the KCC. The BPU announced on March 13 it was temporarily suspending utility cutoffs. There was no end time announced to the suspension in March. The BPU encouraged people who could not pay their bills to call 913-573-9145 to set up payment arrangements.