Kansas reported 8,340 positive COVID-19 cases on Monday, an increase of 454 cases since Friday, according to Dr. Lee Norman, Kansas secretary of health.
There was one death since Friday, a positive trend, and deaths now total 173, he said.
The state also reported 58,650 negative tests on Monday, Dr. Norman said at a news conference.
He said Kansas was doing well compared to Iowa and Nebraska, which did not issue the same kind of stay-at-home orders as Kansas.
Dr. Norman said Kansas was looking at 95 clusters on Monday, including 47 inactive and 48 active. They account for 4,013 positive cases and 129 deaths, he said. The statewide clusters included:
• Corrections facilities, three clusters, 920 cases and five deaths
• Gatherings of all sorts, 10 clusters, eight inactive, 123 cases, 11 deaths;
• Group living arrangements, six outbreaks, five inactive, 55 caes and two deaths;
• Health care, three clusters, all inactive, 22 cases, no deaths;
• Long-term care facilities, 25 clusters, 12 inactive, 573 cases, 99 deaths;
• Meatpacking, 10 clusters, 1,964 cases, six deaths;
• Private industries, 38 clusters, 19 inactive, 356 cases, six deaths.
The Kansas Department of Corrections announced today that a Lansing Correctional Facility resident who died Saturday had tested positive for COVID-19. It was the fourth resident death related to COVID-19, according to a spokesman. The resident was a male over 60 with underlying medical conditions who tested positive on April 29 and was transferred to the hospital May 1, according to KDOC. His name was not released.
Tracking, tracing and monitoring of clusters are critical to contain the spread of the virus in Kansas, Dr. Norman said. Except for residents of corrections facilities, people live in the community as well, he added.
About half of the cases in Kansas have resulted from the 95 clusters, he said, and large numbers of clusters remind them they must stay vigilant.
They have always warned against mass gatherings, and during the weekend, 10 cases have been linked to a gathering earlier this month at Lake Perry, Dr. Norman said.
Dr. Norman said the Shawnee County Health Department has been doing contact tracing on the case, and it has resulted in 20 people in quarantine. The incubation period is still ongoing from this incident, he said.
Plus, in a related incident, the Topeka Police Department Recruit Academy was closed temporarily, he said. An individual recruit at the academy tested positive for COVID-19, and there was a link between the recruit and some of the people infected at the lake, according to a news release from the Shawnee County Health Department. The recruit did not participate at any gatherings at Lake Perry. All recruits now have been placed on quarantine, according to the Shawnee County Health Department. The gathering may have violated the stay-at-home order, according to officials.
Anyone who visited the public areas including restrooms at Lake Perry between May 2 and May 10 and has symptoms of COVID-19 is asked to contact a health care provider and alert them that they may have been exposed to the virus, according to the Shawnee County Health Department. People there were from several counties and from two states.
“As we work to reopen, remember the virus is still out there,” Dr. Norman said. He said he is sure that more cases would emanate from the Lake Perry cluster, including in other counties and other states, where people came from.
“There is no cure, no vaccine, we can’t throw caution to the wind now,” he said.
From looking at the Lake Perry incident recently, there are some people skirting the rules and skirting their own common sense, Dr. Norman said.
“They know better, but they’re doing it anyway,” he said.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment recently switched to reporting total case numbers only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Dr. Norman said the date of symptom onset is more useful at this time to establish a trend line, than the raw daily numbers.
The total case numbers reported every day are dependent on county health departments that report to the KDHE, and they sometimes batch up the numbers and have big spikes in one day, he said. It is more helpful to him to look at the symptom onset date of the case, which tells him how much activity is on a particular day and allows him to establish a trend line, he said.
Dr. Norman advised people to wear a mask when in public, which is CDC guidance.
With Memorial Day weekend coming up, Dr. Norman is hoping people are taking the risk of getting COVID-19 seriously.
“I haven’t worried about a weekend this much since Easter weekend,” Dr. Norman said.
State case counts in counties
According to KDHE, Wyandotte County had 1,178 cases on Monday.
On Monday, according to the KDHE, Leavenworth County reported a total of 1,051 confirmed and probable cases. Johnson County reported 666 confirmed and probable cases, according to the KDHE.
Eighty-four counties reported confirmed and probable positive cases on Monday, according to KDHE, and some of them included: Ford County (Dodge City area), 1,403; Finney County (Garden City area), 1,281; Seward County (Liberal area), 780; Sedgwick County (Wichita area), 512; Lyon County (Emporia area), 359; and Shawnee County (Topeka area), 198.
Douglas County (Lawrence area) reported 61 cases, and Riley County (Manhattan area) reported 62 cases, according to the KDHE.
Dr. Norman’s news conference is online at https://www.facebook.com/GovLauraKelly/videos/3313868611956554/.
More information about the “red zone” rules is online at the ReStart WyCo hub at https://wyandotte-county-covid-19-hub-unifiedgov.hub.arcgis.com/pages/restartwyco.
The ReStart WyCo plan is at https://www.wycokck.org/WycoKCK/media/Health-Department/Documents/Communicable%20Disease/COVID19/RestartWYCOGuidanceDocument043020.pdf.
The UG’s COVID-19 webpage is at https://alpha.wycokck.org/Coronavirus-COVID-19-Information.
The Kansas COVID-19 website is at https://covid.ks.gov/.
The Kansas COVID-19 resource page is at https://govstatus.egov.com/coronavirus.
Information from the CDC is at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/.
The number of positive COVID-19 cases in the Kansas City metro area is listed at a website sponsored by the Mid-America Regional Council at http://marc-gis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/1c93961075454558b3bf0dfad014feae.
Several Wyandotte County pop-up testing sites are listed at https://wyandotte-county-covid-19-hub-unifiedgov.hub.arcgis.com/pages/what-to-do-if-you-think-you-have-covid-19