Kansas’ Death Total Among COVID-19 Patients Swells By 119 In Two-Day Period

From the Kansas Reflector:

By
Tim Carpenter - December 2, 2020

TOPEKA — Kansas public health officials reported Wednesday 119 more Kansans infected with COVID-19 had died as the pandemic’s surge across the state in the past five weeks expanded known infections by 77,000 and documented fatalities by 670.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s update from Monday’s report revealed 1,679 deaths among coronavirus-infected Kansans since March. The new total of infected Kansas reached 162,446 and hospitalizations grew to 5,290. Here were KDHE’s cumulative totals Oct. 30: 1,007 deaths, 85,181 cases and 3,752 hospitalizations.

State and hospital officials predicted a surge in patients as cooler weather arrived this year and with dozens of counties resisting public health recommendations issued by Gov. Laura Kelly and endorsed by KDHE for people to wear a mask, social distance, wash hands and avoid large gatherings. In response to uptick in COVID-19 infection throughout the state, about half of Kansas’ 105 counties have adopted the governor’s mask requirement.

Physician David Wild, vice president of performance improvement at the University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City, Kansas, said 70% of the hospital’s 159 coronavirus patients were from the Kansas City metropolitan area and the others were transfers from around the region. Some had to be flown to the hospital, a process that carried additional risk.

About half of the KU hospital’s 100 patients with acute COVID-19 were in intensive-care beds and 29 had been placed on a ventilator. Capacity issues led KU Health Systems this week to free up ICU beds for more complex care by transporting patients from the main hospital to a satellite facility nearby, he said.

“We are only transferring patients who are carefully selected and evaluated and are able to be moved safely by ambulance,” Wild said. “It’s a good example of the ways we are trying really, really hard and sometimes creatively to manage capacity, to make sure everyone who needs care in our community can get it.”

Wild said he expected another increase in COVID-19 patients in the next week or so due to exposures during the Thanksgiving holiday.

Heather Harris, medical director of HaysMed campus of the KU Health System, said half of the hospital’s staffed beds were filled by COVID-19 patients. Since April, the facility has cared for 300 coronavirus patients, but most arrived during November. Last month, she said, the hospital denied 103 transfers from other hospitals. That step had been taken only twice previously in the past 14 years, she said.

“It’s definitely an intense situation for the hospital and the nurses and physicians,” Harris said. “I think some of the rural areas felt they were protected due to their geography from the virus. Clearly, that’s not the case.”

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