Category: COVID-19

Community health officers offering guidance on when to seek medical care

According to a combined statement from medical officers of the Unified Government, Johnson County, Kansas, and Jackson County, Missouri, residents should not visit the emergency rooms of hospitals for mild illness.

Anyone with mild symptoms of fever and cough should self-isolate at home and away from family members for at least seven days after symptoms started or for 72 hours after all symptoms are gone, according to the statement.

Anyone with more severe symptoms such as shortness of breath along with fever and cough, should call their health care provider, according to the statement. Individuals who have mild symptoms should not expect to be tested at this time, according to officials.

Testing is prioritized to the sickest patients, who are seriously ill and require admission to the hospital, the officials stated. Excessive testing of patients with minor symptoms could put too much strain on laboratories and hospital resources, according to the statement.

Since there is no treatment currently for COVID-19, unless critically ill requiring hospitalization, testing patients with mild illness is a lower priority, according to the statement.

Residents have a role in preventing the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, according to health officials. Because individuals can spread the disease before they develop symptoms, limiting the number of interactions with other people will result in a decrease in the transmission of the coronavirus, according to the statement.

The Unified Government has a COVID-19 website at Wycokck.org/COVID-19.

KDHE has a website for more information on COVID-19, at https://govstatus.egov.com/coronavirus.

The CDC also has a COVID-19 website at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/.

KCKCC to go online for remainder of semester; commencement canceled

Because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, Kansas City Kansas Community College has made the decision to transition to fully virtual classes for the rest of the semester.

Also, according to college officials, the spring commencement ceremony for students was canceled today.

“We will be looking at other ways to celebrate with our students,” Dr. Greg Mosier, college president, told the KCKCC Board of Trustees today.

The college campus remains closed for the rest of the week, with spring break extended until Sunday, March 29. Classes are to resume on Monday, March 30, but they will be online.

Dr. Mosier told the board that the college had been trying to make adjustments to keep a portion of hands-on learning for students who have laboratory classes.

However, Monday’s announcements from governments limited the number of students and participants to 10, and the college realized it would not be able to meet the hands-on needs, he said.

“We will be able to educate them in a different manner,” he said. The college will be moving to virtual delivery of classes on March 30.

Starting on Monday, students will have one more week away from classes, allowing the faculty and staff to get ready for the online classes, Dr. Mosier told the trustees. He said some of the faculty and staff have experience in online teaching and will help train the faculty who have not previously taught online.

The college has a COVID-19 page on its website, https://www.kckcc.edu/communications/covid19/index.html, and is continuing to send out information to students, he said.

“It’s a very fluid environment, and changing on the hour,” he said.

KCKCC has been following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control, as well as state and local health officials, according to a KCKCC letter dated March 17.

All of the KCKCC locations will be closed Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week, he said.

Many KCKCC employees already are working from home using virtual technology, he added.

Dual enrollment classes taught by KCKCC instructors at local high schools will be online only, according to the letter. GED and English as a Second Language classes at Wyandotte High School will be postponed until further notice, according to the letter.

Students will be able to use the college website’s virtual assistance program instead of coming to the campus for a personal meeting during this time, according to the letter.

“This health emergency will pass and KCKCC is committed to provide the best service to our students and community for many years to come,” Dr. Mosier wrote in the letter.

The KCKCC Board of Trustees meeting is online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTf3a1vFVqg .

Every school kid in Kansas was just told to stay home until fall because of coronavirus

by Stephan Bisaha, Kansas News Service

Topeka, Kansas — Gov. Laura Kelly on Tuesday ordered all of the state’s schools closed for the remainder of the academic year, taking her most dramatic action yet to stem the spread of COVID-19.

The decision by the governor came while all the state’s schools were shut down either for spring break or to slow the spread of the new coronavirus — some under orders from county health departments. In particular, the largest school systems in Kansas had either moved to online instruction or stretched out those spring breaks.

“The reality of this pandemic is that it cannot be controlled statewide if school buildings remain open,” Kelly said in an afternoon news conference in the Statehouse.

She said state officials and local school districts had begun working on ways to make remote learning work, even as she acknowledged online classes will not match what happens in schoolrooms. Her order also applies to private schools. Kelly said the new school year should start as normal in August.

Health departments in Douglas, Franklin and Shawnee counties closed schools for two weeks. Riley County, home to Kansas State University and the biggest military base in Kansas, ordered Manhattan schools closed until the end of March.

Some educators worried how rural parts of the state could continue teaching their K-12 students when internet service was unavailable in so many homes. For instance, Washington County Schools estimates about 30 percent of its students have no internet at home.

That digital divide, between the haves and have-nots of the Kansas school districts, underscored an inequity in the state. That could become more pronounced when institutions shut down so that Kansans can try to avoid infection in the fast-moving pandemic.

The prospect of closing also raised worries about replacing lunches provided to the neediest students at schools and whether poorer areas of the state could adapt as well as wealthier areas such as Johnson County. School districts across that suburban Kansas City county, the most populous in the state, announced a shutdown on Monday.

Several school districts have been working with state officials to get federal waivers that would let them deliver meals during the school year, much the way they do in the summer.

Kelly said the state has begun working with districts to keep those nutrition programs going in some form.

She also said that salaried and hourly employees at public schools will continue to be paid.

Meanwhile, state universities started making the call this week to move all their classes online.

Wichita State University’s campus remains open while Kansas State University closed its dorms. The University of Kansas announced that it plans to finish the semester online, rather than have students return to campus for classes after spring break. It also said students would have to seek special permission to remain in on-campus housing.

More than 30 states have already shut down their schools as the United States ramps up its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The White House warned governors that states with community transmission should shutter schools.

Stephan Bisaha reports on education and young adult life for KMUW and the Kansas News Service. You can follow him on Twitter @stevebisaha.
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.
See more at https://www.kcur.org/post/every-school-kid-kansas-was-just-told-stay-home-because-coronavirus