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KDHE releases info on area COVID-19 clusters
Coronavirus breaking news

Active cluster locations for COVID-19 were added to the Cluster Summary tab (bottom of the page) at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment website on Wednesday. They can be found online at https://www.coronavirus.kdheks.gov/160/COVID-19-in-Kansas. Facilities are grouped by type and then information is listed for each location. 

Local clusters include the Larned Correctional Mental Health Facility in Pawnee county, 197 cluster cases, and two health-care centers in Barton County. Clara Barton Hospital, Hoisington, has 14 cluster cases and the University of Kansas Health System - Great Bend Family Medicine has 6 cluster cases.

Other area clusters include 403 cases at the Hutchinson Correctional Facility in Reno County and 45 cases at Fort Hays State University in Ellis County.

Cluster categories include camp, college or university, corrections, government, group living, health care, long-term care facility, private business, public event, religious gathering, school and sports.

Once a cluster is considered no longer active, typically once there have been 28 days without the occurrence of new cases, the facility will no longer appear on the named list of active clusters.

KDHE notes that cluster cases have been associated or linked to a particular outbreak at the time of report and are considered preliminary. There is a time lag between when a case is identified and when it may be associated with a cluster. No additional information regarding the outbreaks will be released.

KDHE hopes to serve two purposes by releasing this data. First, it creates more transparency as the department receives numerous requests from concerned Kansans about the exact location of COVID-19 clusters. The second goal is to empower Kansans to be more proactive about assessing their own personal risk. If an individual sees that locations they regularly visit are on the active cluster list, they will have a better sense of how they are increasing their own personal risk and perhaps they will make some individual decisions to reduce the spread of the disease.


State/national

KDHE updates its state COVID-19 statistics on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. As of 9 a.m. Wednesday, Kansas has had 47,410 positive cases, 2,470 hospitalizations, 495 deaths and 394,004 negative tests. There were 496 new cases and 10 new deaths reported since Monday, Sept. 7.

The Centers for Disease Control reports there have been 6,310,663 total cases in the United States as of Sept. 9. There have been 262,971 cases in the last seven days. There have been 189,147 deaths.


Great Bend USD 428 reports

Recent posts on the Great Bend USD 428 website show a student at Jefferson Elementary School exhibited symptoms on Sept. 4 after family exposure. Although they had been home all week, four students were quarantined from possible exposure on Aug. 28. On Sept. 8, a staff member at the District Education Center tested positive. Three additional staff were quarantined for exposure outside of work/school.