Thursday afternoon, Barton County released its latest COVID-19 statistics, showing 60 new cases since its last report at 8 a.m. Monday, Dec. 28. The total number of positive cases for the county is 2,085, and 163 of those are active.
Barton County Administrator Phil Hathcock announced that the county will no longer include a report of the number of deaths in the county. This is due to the exceedingly difficult task of tracking the number of deaths due to COVID through the Office of Vital Statistics, Hathcock said. He noted that the county death information is available on the Kansas Department of Health and Environment website, coronavirus.kdheks.gov.
KDHE’s death summary for area counties as of Wednesday shows: Barton, 33; Ellsworth, 10; Pawnee, 5; Rice, 3; Rush, 8; Russell, 15; Stafford, 8. This represents two new deaths in Barton County and one in Ellsworth County. The total for Pawnee County was revised downward, dropping from 6 to 5, and other totals were unchanged.
Barton County will continue to report other COVID-19 statistics as before, Hathcock said. As of 1 p.m. Thursday, there have been 6,531 total quarantine or isolation orders issued in the county and 335 of those were active. The total cases include 884 males and 1,201 females.
Of the new cases, 20 are males and 40 are females. Two reside in Ellinwood, 48 in Great Bend, seven in Hoisington, one in Olmitz and two in rural Barton County.
The total number of positive cases by residence, followed by the number of current active cases in each community, is:
Albert 6 - 0
Claflin 63 - 1
Ellinwood 193 - 7
Great Bend 1,292 - 118
Hoisington 182 - 18
Olmitz 12 - 1
Pawnee Rock 15 - 1
Rural Barton County 332 - 17
Statewide
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reports that, as of 9 a.m. Wednesday, there have been 222,433 COVID-19 cases statewide, resulting in 6,760 hospitalizations and 2,741 deaths. There were 6,371 new cases, 193 new deaths and 192 new hospitalizations reported since Monday, Dec. 28. The age of those who have died statewide ranges from 18 to 107 years. The median age is 81 years.
KDHE’s report of total cases for area counties: Barton, 2,201; Ellsworth, 1,048; Pawnee, 982; Rice, 783; Rush, 343; Russell, 711; and Stafford, 269.
The state also updated its cluster summary on Wednesday, reporting the names and locations that have five or more COVID-19 cases with symptom onset dates in the last 14 days. Area clusters were reported at: Great Bend Health and Rehab, with nine cases in the last 14 days and the last onset date on Dec. 24; and Larned State Hospital, with six cases and the last onset date on Dec. 23.
