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Ellsworth County inmate dies from COVID-19
State reports more area hospitalizations
350 1st doses 2-22-21

An Ellsworth Correctional Facility (ECF) resident who died Sunday, Nov. 15 had tested positive for COVID-19. This is the third resident death from ECF, and the tenth resident death related to COVID-19 for the Kansas Department of Corrections.

The resident was moved Oct. 26 to the Lansing Correctional Facility COVID-19 Management Unit after testing positive for the virus, and then transported from LCF to the hospital.

He was a 68-year-old white male with underlying medical concerns that contributed to his condition, KDOC reports. He was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder.

The Ellsworth Correctional Facility remains on the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s COVID-19 cluster list. As of last Wednesday, ECF has had 23 cases in the last 14 days.


Statewide reports

As of 9 a.m. Monday, Nov. 16, Barton County has had 122,741 COVID-19 cases, resulting in 4,431 hospitalizations and 1,266 statewide deaths. There were 7,234 new cases, 10 new deaths and 104 new hospitalizations reported since Friday, Nov. 13.

The median age of people who have died from COVID-19 is 80; the youngest age was 18 and the oldest was 107 years.

The KDHE reported the following total positive cases as of 9 a.m. Monday in area counties:

- Barton, 1,285

- Edwards, 123

- Ellis, 1,908

- Ellsworth, 502

- Ness, 204

- Pawnee, 528

- Rice, 284

- Rush, 156

- Russell, 351

- Stafford, 156

KDHE also showed an increase in local hospital admissions.

Pawnee County has now had 13 COVID-related hospitalizations, with three in the intensive care unit. At least seven patients have been discharged.

Barton County has now had 50 total hospitalizations, including 10 ICU admissions and five patients on mechanical ventilation. Thirty patients have been discharged. (The data only includes cases with available discharge information reported to KDHE.)

Most of the Golden Belt is in the south central region of the Kansas Health Care Coalition. For Nov. 15, the 18 regional hospitals responding reported there are 235 staff ICU beds and 129 were being used (56 by COVID-19 patients). This means 45% of the region's ICU beds were available. Of the 251 ventilators, 41 were in use (12 by COVID-19 patients), leaving 84% of the ventilators available. There were 175 COVID-19 patients in the hospital and 613 in-patient beds were available.

KDHE shows Barton County has done 6,048 PCR tests and 838 cases were confirmed. Pawnee County has done 2,141 PCR tests and 478 cases were confirmed.

Statewide, 2,141 people were tested this month with 1,613 negative tests. The monthly percent positive was 20.3%.

Other statistics for Barton County show that for the week beginning Nov. 8, there were 418 PCR tests and 147 (35.17%) were positive. For the 14-day period Nov. 1-14, the county has done 826 tests and 267 (21.3%) were positive.