Rising COVID-19 case numbers in Wyandotte County were the subject of a video posted by the Unified Government Health Department on Friday, Nov. 13.
Dr. Erin Corriveau, deputy chief medical officer, said they were very concerned about the numbers. The community will have to work very hard to get the numbers down, she said.
The percent positivity rate in Wyandotte County is still very high, at about 22 percent, Dr. Corriveau said in the video.
Case numbers continue to increase, and are averaging about 65 cases a day, which is very high, she said. They are very concerned about the effect on hospitals.
“We’re seeing that our hospitals are getting to a point currently, where they’re overwhelmed,” she said. “We just don’t have many more beds left.”
Some hospital staff members are out sick with COVID-19, she said. The spread of COVID-19 is getting out of control, she added.
Juliann Van Liew, Health Department director, said people should maintain the basics, and she would ask everyone to remember what they were doing in April to stop the spread of COVID-19.
That might include working from home, or not going inside restaurants to dine in.
“We are extremely concerned and we’ve unfortunately let our guard down as a community,” she said.
“Yes, the social distancing is great, but what’s even better is staying home,” she said in the video. “If you can stay home, we really strongly ask you to do that.”
They know it will be very difficult to do that, with Thanksgiving almost here. She said people need to think about the risk level they will undertake at the holiday. Who will be in the room, who has a pre-existing condition that you could be exposing, what persons are at an age that puts them at higher risk, she asked.
The questions are difficult and demand sacrifice from people, but “it’s where we are right now,” she said, and they are trying to do these measures with everyone.
The video is posted on the UG Health Department’s Facebook page, and also posted on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT5iyooS_b0.
For more information, visit wycokck.org/covid19.
For more information about the new testing site at the former Kmart location, visit https://alpha.wycokck.org/files/assets/public/health/documents/covid/10092020_newtestingsitewyco.pdf.
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 CDC’s COVID-19 webpage is at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html.