Gov. Laura Kelly announced Monday that the Kansas Department of Health and Environment is rolling out a new “unified testing strategy” for COVID-19.
“Today we saw the highest number of cases in a single reporting period,” she said at her weekly press conference.
Statewide, there have been 58,629 positive COVID-19 cases as of 9 a.m. Monday, with 2,852 hospitalizations and 637 deaths. There were 2,037 new cases and five new deaths reported since Friday, Sept. 25.
Previously, testing had only been for those with symptoms. The new strategy aims to identify and contain more cases of COVID-19 spread by adding non-symptomatic testing in areas where clusters of the virus are likely, such as nursing homes, schools and correctional facilities.
Barton County
Barton County updated its COVID-19 stats at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, showing an increase of 15 positive cases since the last report on Friday, Sept. 25.
Of the new positives, four are males and 11 are females. One resides in Ellinwood, 10 in Great Bend, one in Hoisington and three in rural Barton County.
To date, there have been 507 positive cases – 207 males and 300 females – of which 139 are active. There have been seven COVID-related deaths. The county has issued 3,153 quarantine or isolation orders and 665 of those remain active.
The location and number of positive cases, followed by the number of current active cases:
Claflin 12 - 0
Ellinwood 74 - 51
Great Bend 255 - 70
Hoisington 61 - 2
Olmitz 1 - 0
Pawnee Rock 5 - 0
Rural Barton County 99 - 16
Great Bend USD 428
Great Bend USD 428 reports it received two notifications of COVID-19 incidents on Sunday, each one showing that a student at Lincoln Elementary School had tested positive. In the first case, five students were expected to receive quarantine notices. In the second case, seven students were expected to receive quarantine notices.
KDHE data
KDHE shows Barton County has had 25 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, including six intensive care unit admissions and four placed on mechanical ventilation, as reported by health-care providers and local health departments into the electronic disease surveillance system, EpiTrax. Available data shows 14 patients have been discharged.
Other data
Johns Hopkins University shows Barton County has had 498 confirmed cases and seven deaths as of Monday. Pawnee County has had 414 cases and one death.
