Tag: COVID-19

Gov. Laura Kelly said today in a news conference that she is moving forward with plans to restart the economy.

She said the state is looking at metrics that would allow some restrictions to be lifted on May 4, and right now, it appears that it would be safe to do that. While the governor did not yet announce the details of the reopening plans, she is working on plans that are to be announced later this week, she added.

Besides downward trends in hospitalizations and deaths, the state also has made some progress on the acquisition of testing, helping the state ramp up its testing to a more robust level than before, Gov. Kelly said.

When the state lifts the stay-at-home order, the local communities would be free to issue their own orders that apply to their counties.

“When we lift the statewide stay-at-home order, we then reauthorize the local counties to take our guidelines and be more restrictive if they think it’s warranted in their particular environment,” Gov. Kelly said.

That authority will go back to the counties to put in measures that are more restrictive than the ones statewide, she said. The state still has the authority to put in place measures that override what is done in a local county, although the state doesn’t want to have to do that, according to the governor.

Gov. Kelly said there may have been more testing going on than has been reported because private labs were doing 80 percent of the testing and did not always report negative tests to the state, only positive results.

Kansas reported 3,328 positive COVID-19 cases from 75 counties today, an increase of 154 cases, according to Gov. Kelly. The state now has 120 total deaths.

Two more deaths were reported today in Wyandotte County from people who had tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Unified Government Health Department webpage.

In addition, there was a death of an inmate from the Lansing Correctional Facility over 50 years old with underlying health conditions, according to state officials.

Dr. Lee Norman, Kansas secretary of health, said today that they will be using the number of hospitalizations, number of deaths per capita and number of deaths per positive cases in determining whether the state is ready to reopen.

He said those numbers are decreasing and that is encouraging. While there will be an uptick in the number of positive cases, he said things are not getting worse in reality.

While there were 378 positive COVID-19 cases reported at the Kansas meatpacking plants, so far there were no deaths, he said, and possibly one hospitalization. Most of those positive cases are asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic, he said. He said the counts would peak and then drop.

When asked why the state didn’t reopen immediately, Dr. Norman said there were still a lot of COVID-19 cases out there, and it would be imprudent to reopen now, taking a big leap before taking a more measured approach. “You have to walk before you can run,” he said.

At the current run rate, they have the ability to test everyone who’s symptomatic now, he added.

Gov. Kelly said it was important to have in-depth discussions with all stakeholders, allowing them to have input, before lifting the order.

Gov. Kelly said today she had a call with the White House and Kansas will receive equipment that will sterilize N95 masks and make them safe to use for workers who originally used them. They will extend the life of the masks up to 20 times, she said. Up to 80,000 masks a day can be sanitized by this system, she said. The system will go into operation next week, she added.

The governor also said she has been gathering input from different businesses, legislators, health care representatives and local communities on reopening the state. She will announce a plan on Thursday.

State officials also announced a new Kansas COVID-19 website at https://covid.ks.gov/. The website includes not just medical and case information, but also information about job assistance, unemployment benefits, as well as social services that are available.

Dr. Norman said the state is monitoring 55 clusters, including 18 in long-term care facilities with 401 cases and 68 deaths.

Also, there are clusters in two group living arrangements with 28 cases and zero deaths; Lansing Correctional Facility, 115 cases and one death; two health care facilities, 16 cases, zero deaths; six religious gatherings, 99 cases and eight deaths; 21 private companies, 170 cases and four deaths; and six meatpacking facilities, 378 cases and zero deaths.

Testing and contact tracing will be the key to reopening, he said.

There are 20 existing KDHE staff who are being trained to do contact tracing in Lyon, Ford, Finney and Seward counties, he said. Then they will bring in about 400 volunteers to do case tracking, in groups of 50, he said.

Dr. Norman said a toxicologist and emergency medicine physician at the Kansas Poison Control Center has seen a more than 40 percent increase in cleaning chemical cases, including a person who drank a cleaning product because of the advice he received. Dr. Norman said they are trying to present counter-messages to ingesting cleaning chemicals.

Gov. Kelly said another round of $320 billion federal funding for small business loans was approved today, and she encouraged Kansas businesses to put in their applications as soon as possible, if they have not already done so.

Dr. Norman said it is likely that even when it reopens, society probably will change the way they interact in business and groups of people. Social distancing probably will remain for a long time.

Some of the counties’ reports, according to the KDHE: Ford (Dodge City area), 516 cases; Johnson County, 440 cases; Seward (Liberal area), 349 cases; Sedgwick (Wichita area), 339 cases; Leavenworth County, 184 cases; Finney (Garden City area), 175 cases; Lyon County (Emporia area), 147 cases; Shawnee, 105 cases; Coffey (Burlington area), 48 cases; Douglas (Lawrence area), 48 cases; Riley County (Manhattan area), 45 cases; Reno County, 26; Labette County, 21; McPherson County, 20; Saline County, 19; Montgomery County, 16; Butler County, 14; Wabaunsee County, 15; Franklin County, 12; and Geary County, 11.

Gov. Kelly’s news conference is on video at https://www.facebook.com/GovLauraKelly/videos/912623055864233/.

The Kansas COVID-19 website is at https://covid.ks.gov/.

The Kansas COVID-19 resource page is at https://govstatus.egov.com/coronavirus

The UG’s COVID-19 webpage is at https://alpha.wycokck.org/Coronavirus-COVID-19-Information.

Information from the CDC is at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/.

Wyandotte County reported 12 new COVID-19 cases at noon Monday, for a total of 573.

There were two more deaths reported in Wyandotte County since Sunday, according to the Unified Government COVID-19 webpage.

There has been no announcement as of Monday morning on when Kansas will end its stay-at-home order. The Kansas stay-at-home order expires on Sunday, May 3, but the order can be lengthened at the state or local level.

Gov. Laura Kelly said last week that she would announce plans for reopening this week. A court document filed Saturday in a case brought by two western Kansas churches pointed to May 4 as a date for the state easing some restrictions; however, that has not been announced at this time.

Kansas City, Missouri, officials previously have announced that they will not lift stay-at-home restrictions until May 15.

KU health officials discuss gradually bringing patients back for elective surgeries

As the University of Kansas Health System’s numbers of COVID-19 patients have remained in the 20s to 30s for the past few weeks, without a surge, health officials there are discussing a return to some hospital procedures and elective surgeries, with additional safety measures. There were about 25 COVID-19 patients at the health system on Sunday, doctors stated. There were 24 COVID-19 patients there on Monday, according to a spokesman.

Social distancing and other safety measures such as hygiene will be important for the health system, according to Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer at KU Health System. COVID-19 patients are in different areas from other patients.

Tammy Peterman, president of the Kansas Division, the University of Kansas Health System, at a news conference Monday said there were about 500 inpatients currently at the hospital, and normally there are 750 or more.

“There won’t be a switch that will be flipped, we know that, this will be a gradual process to bring additional patients back in,” Peterman said. “We know how to be safe, and we can do this.”

Staff and nurses have worked with patient safety every day, and will continue to do so, she said.

There is a new normal now, she said. Peterman said there will be additional procedures that will be put in place. There will be screeners as people come into the hospital, and there will be testing, social distancing and monitoring of personal protective equipment, she said.

Just as they prepared for the COVID-19 patients, they also are preparing for other patients who are in need of care, she said.

“We know that we put some of that care on pause, now some of those patients need to get back into the health system,” she said.

Bob Page, president and CEO of The University of Kansas Health System, said the health system has committed to its staff and employees for the last 21 years without any layoffs and furloughs, and it does not intend to do that now, either.

“We are committing to keep our staff whole, from a base pay perspective, through the end of June,” Page said.

The health system will bring more volume back, and will need the employees, he said. The health system also is allowing 50 employees to assist the state of Kansas in doing contact tracing of COVID-19 patients.

Peterman said the health system will be very cautious about reopening, and will work with physicians, who will determine what patients need to get back in first. The health system plans to test patients before bringing them in for surgery and procedures.

Some of the staff is being redeployed to areas where work needs to be done, she said.

Dr. Stites said there have been recent reports of increased deaths among patients who did not come in for treatment for heart attacks and strokes. Some of the patients may have been afraid of hospitals, but he said KU Health System is not seeing any patient-to-patient or health care worker-to-patient transfer of COVID-19.

Patients coming into the hospital will be tested first for COVID-19, he said, and they are working hard to make sure patients stay safe.

Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at the University of Kansas Health System, said the health system keeps up with guidance from the CDC and KDHE. They monitor the amount of personal protective equipment that is on hand to make sure health care workers have enough, he said. They test, identify positive COVID-19 cases and make sure those persons are put into isolation, following policies, he said.

Dr. Stites said with operations, there is discussion about using regional anesthetic blocks, as general anesthesia is in short supply through the nation. There also are social distancing rules now in place.

Peterman said the hospital will still be closed to visitors, and they will continue to try to connect visitors to their families through social media such as Zoom calls.

Telehealth will continue to be used, according to the officials.

Page said it remains very important for years that no patient be harmed when they come into the hospital, and they have not let up on the zero harm monitoring.

Dr. Stites said whenever society reopens, unless there is an effective therapy or vaccine, there will be a risk of increased spread of the disease and bringing about another surge.

The way to avoid that is to have widespread testing for persons who are sick to remain at home, and they don’t have that yet, he said.

From a purely public health standpoint, the answer of when the safest time to reopen society would be when there is a vaccine and therapy, or adequate ability to test for who’s got it, and contact tracing for those who have it, he said. Now they can do increasing contact tracing, but there aren’t enough tests to do community-wide testing, he said.

What they’re currently also seeing is a need for people to return to their jobs, and there is a risk inherent in it, he said. They have had success with social distancing, flattening the curve here.

They live a little bit in fear of another surge, as what happened in New York City, he said.

“What we have to do when we reopen is practice the same things we’ve been doing all along,” Dr. Stites said.

When society reopens, people will need to maintain six feet distance from each other, wash their hands, not touch their faces, wear a mask if they are in contact with others and stay home when sick, Dr. Stites said.

“We can’t let up on the practices that we know have really worked,” Peterman said.

To view the KU Health System news conference, visit https://www.facebook.com/kuhospital/videos/1130729253929843/?__tn__=%2Cd%2CP-R&eid=ARBZnJ8AupbetpZmfu9YNn2Q0l6JM5lPyL-ud8sOVymB1jcQQpMreHSr9H88sSq5uqo1cw9EoFfp0WUi.

The UG’s COVID-19 webpage is at https://alpha.wycokck.org/Coronavirus-COVID-19-Information.

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/.

Kansas reported 3,174 positive COVID-19 cases on Sunday, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

It was an increase of 118 since Saturday, according to KDHE statistics. Seventy-six Kansas counties are reporting positive cases.

The state had one more death since Saturday, for a total of 118 deaths.

Wyandotte County reported 561 positive cases, an increase of 10 since Saturday, according to the Unified Government COVID-19 webpage. The county had one more death, and the death total is now 51.

Some of the counties’ reports, according to the KDHE: Ford (Dodge City area), 459 cases; Johnson County, 430 cases; Sedgwick (Wichita area), 338 cases; Seward (Liberal area), 336 cases; Leavenworth County, 172 cases; Lyon County (Emporia area), 146 cases; Finney (Garden City area), 140 cases; Shawnee (Topeka area), 101 cases; Coffey (Burlington area), 48 cases; Douglas (Lawrence area), 48 cases; and Riley County (Manhattan area), 44 cases; Reno County, 23; Labette County, 21; McPherson County, 20; Saline County, 19; Montgomery County, 16; Butler County, 13; Wabaunsee County, 13; Franklin County, 12; and Geary County, 11.

Statewide, 485 hospitalizations were reported. Of the positive cases in the state, 1,559 were female and 1,593 were male, according to KDHE. Cases ranged in age from 0 to 99 years old, with the median age 47.