Is the Kansas City area headed for a total lockdown?
That was one of the topics discussed at Wednesday morning’s University of Kansas Health System’s news conference.
Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer for the health system, said as numbers in the Kansas City area keep rising, he’s more concerned that a total lockdown might be necessary.
Beds are in short supply now in the Kansas City area, and if residents don’t follow the rules of infection prevention, it could get worse, especially after Thanksgiving, he said. Large gatherings inside homes for the holiday could turn into superspreader events.
There are new COVID-19 restrictions going into effect Friday in Wyandotte County and Jackson County, and statewide in Kansas on the day before Thanksgiving, however. (See story about statewide mask mandate at https://wyandotteonline.com/governor-issues-new-mask-mandate-other-steps-to-slow-spread-of-covid-19/.)
With positive news this week that vaccines are on track, Dr. Stites urged people to keep wearing masks, socially distance and avoid crowds.
“Help is almost here, and we need people to still be good to get to the other side,” he said.
The KU doctors also talked with Anil Gharmalker, a COVID-19 patient who caught COVID-19 in April, was on a ventilator and now has had several surgeries. On Tuesday he was in the hospital for a procedure related to being on a ventilator.
Gharmalker has had to cut back on his work, running a trucking business, and still suffers from shortness of breath and fatigue. His time on the ventilator and a tracheotomy has affected his speaking.
He asked people not to be complacent about COVID-19 as he was previously. Because he was young and living in a small town, he never thought he would be seriously ill with it.
“I used to give lip service to being careful. I wish I would have been more careful,” Gharmalker said. COVID-19 didn’t care who he was or what he believed, he said. It scared him to think that if enough people like him showed up at the hospital now, there might not be enough services to keep them alive.
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control, said in any small gathering, even a group of four, it’s possible at least one has the virus without knowing it. When it comes to schools, he says the classrooms themselves are safe, it’s what the students do outside of class that’s the problem. He noted the upcoming vaccines are proving to be 90 to 95 percent effective, which is much better than the annual flu vaccine.
Dr. Hawkinson reported there were 85 acute COVID-19 patients in the hospital Wednesday, up from 84 on Tuesday, with 32 in the intensive care unit, up from 31 on Tuesday, and 13 on ventilators, up from 12 on Tuesday. Another 41 COVID-19 patients are still in the hospital but were out of the acute infection phase, a decrease from 42 on Tuesday. The total of COVID-19 patients was 126, the same number as Tuesday.
HaysMed in Hays, Kansas, reported 30 total COVID-19 inpatients, with three in the recovery phase, up from 27 on Tuesday.
Wyandotte County reported an additional 70 COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, for a cumulative total of 9,695, according to the Unified Government COVID-19 webpage. No increase in deaths was reported, for a total of 167.
Kansas reported an increase of 5,853 COVID-19 cases from Monday to Wednesday, according to statistics from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. There is a cumulative total of 128,594 cases. There were an additional 60 deaths reported on Wednesday, for a cumulative 1,326 deaths, according to the KDHE figures.
The Kansas City region, a nine-county area, reported 72,720 total COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, according to the Mid-America Regional Council’s Kansas City Region COVID-19 resource hub. Average daily new cases were trending down over the last week. Testing was down in the nine-county area, and there were almost half as many new COVID-19 tests this week as there were last week. Hospitalization rates for COVID-19 were trending up in the nine-county area, according to the resource hub.
The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States increased to 11,527,440 on Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University figures.
Free COVID-19 testing available on Thursday
A free COVID-19 pop-up test will continue from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19, at Vibrant Health Argentine location, 1428 S. 32nd St., Kansas City, Kansas.
The pop-up test is through Vibrant Health and the Wyandotte County Health Equity Task Force.
The Unified Government Health Department has moved its COVID-19 testing from the 6th and Ann location to the former Kmart at 78th and State Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas. The hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Tests are free for those who live or work in Wyandotte County. The tests are now saliva COVID-19 tests.
The tests now are open to asymptomatic people as well as those who have symptoms or have been exposed to COVID-19. Check with the UG Health Department’s Facebook page to see if there have been any changes in the schedule. Bring something that shows that you live or work in Wyandotte County, such as a utility bill.
For more information about the testing site at the former Kmart location, visit https://alpha.wycokck.org/files/assets/public/health/documents/covid/10092020_newtestingsitewyco.pdf.
To see an earlier story about the governor’s new mask mandate, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/governor-issues-new-mask-mandate-other-steps-to-slow-spread-of-covid-19/.
The KU doctors’ news conference is at https://www.facebook.com/kuhospital/videos/1093495401106934.
The new Wyandotte County health order with a limit of 10 persons to a gathering, and a closing time of 10 p.m. for restaurants and bars, with other new restrictions, is at https://alpha.wycokck.org/files/assets/public/health/documents/covid/11162020localhealthorderexecuted.pdf.
The UG COVID-19 webpage is at https://alpha.wycokck.org/Coronavirus-COVID-19-Information.
The KDHE’s COVID-19 webpage is at https://www.coronavirus.kdheks.gov/.
The KC Region COVID-19 Hub dashboard is at https://marc2.org/covidhub/.
The Wyandotte County page on the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 website is at https://bao.arcgis.com/covid-19/jhu/county/20209.html.
The CDC’s COVID-19 webpage is at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html.