The sixth Kansas COVID-19 case has been reported in Butler County, Kansas, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
A man in his 70s who had traveled outside the United States is a presumptive positive case, with testing sent to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s Kansas Health and Environmental Laboratories, according to a KDHE spokesman. The man is now in isolation.
The results will be verified by the CDC lab but will be treated as positive unless determined otherwise, according to the spokesman.
Butler County is adjacent to Sedgwick County. Sedgwick County includes the Wichita area.
KDHE will continue to work with the local health department and CDC to identify and contact people who may have come into contact with the individual while he was infectious, and will monitor those persons for fever and respiratory symptoms, the spokesman stated.
“Kansans should remain vigilant,” Dr. Lee Norman, KDHE secretary said, in a news release. “It’s important to live your lives, but it’s also important to take basic precautions like exercising good hygiene practices. It is up to each of us to do our part.”
People should exercise vigilance when attending large public gatherings, particularly those people over age 60 and those with weakened immune systems or chronic medical conditions. There are mass events guidance documents from the Centers from Disease Control available on KDHE’s website, www.kdheks.gov/coronavirus.
If you have symptoms such as fever, cough or shortness of breath and believe you may have had contact or have had contact with someone with a laboratory confirmed case of COVID-19, stay home and call your healthcare provider, the KDHE spokesman stated.
You may also call the KDHE phone bank at 1-866-534-3463 (1-866-KDHEINF) today Monday – Friday, 8 a.m.–5 p.m. For more information about COVID-19, visit KDHE’s website and Frequently Asked Questions at www.kdheks.gov/coronavirus and www.cdc.gov/coronavirus.