The Barton County Courthouse was listed as one of the COVID-19 clusters in Kansas when the Kansas Department of Health and Environment published its weekly update on Wednesday. KDHE publishes the names of locations that have five or more cases with symptom onset dates in the last 14 days. The courthouse has had five, with the last onset date being Dec. 14.
The only other area cluster Wednesday was the Ellsworth Correctional Facility, also with five cases in the last 14 days.
To date, Kansas has had 209,689 COVID-19 cases, resulting in 6,424 hospitalizations and 2,507 statewide deaths as of 9 a.m. Wednesday. There were 5,089 new cases, 59 new deaths and 157 new hospitalizations reported since Monday, Dec. 21. Due to the Christmas holiday, case counts will not be updated again until Monday, Dec. 28.
KDHE reports the total cases for area counties are: Barton, 2,106; Ellsworth, 1,012; Pawnee, 954; Rice, 733; Rush, 333; Russell, 691; and Stafford, 265.
Other reports
The Stafford County Health Department’s last COVID-19 update, posted Dec. 18, showed 30 active positive cases and seven deaths to date.
The Pawnee County Health Department’s last update, posted Dec. 21, said 69 cases had been identified in the last 14 days and 31 in the last seven days. There were 31 active cases. At that time, the county was showing 914 total cases but said the total for the community, excluding long-term care, Larned State Hospital and Larned Correctional Mental Health Facility, was 445.
The Rush County Health Department reports that as of Dec. 21, Rush County has tested 991 people. Out of those, 313 have been positive and 15 were still active and in isolation. The county reports 298 people have recovered.
Russell County Health Department reports that, as of 1 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 23, the county has had 711 positive cases and 34 were active; there have been 652 recovered cases. There have been 17 deaths and 48 total hospitalizations with four people currently hospitalized.
The Ellsworth County Health Department reported receiving its first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday morning. The department has not updated its COVID-19 numbers online since Dec. 12.
The Barton County Health Department has not published an update since Dec. 18, when there were 129 active cases (out of 1,904 total for the year). There have been 19 deaths in the county related to COVID-19.
