TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – Shawnee Co. is back at the maximum number of 24 on its COVID-19 community broadcast scorecard.
Health officials from Shawnee Co. announced the update Thursday afternoon, saying they are starting to see an increase in the holiday season.
This comes one day after the country reported a record number of cases of the virus at 233 to the health department.
The incidence index – which declined in the ‘low’ zone last week, was in the ‘uncontrolled’ zone in the latest report, with new cases 43% higher than a week earlier.
Health officials say Shawnee Co. 152 confirmed 152 new cases on Thursday alone. The province has also killed 42 residents of COVID-related disease in the past two weeks.
Shawnee Co. also saw an increase in the percentage of tests returning positively, from 9.9 percent last week to 12.8 percent this week. Occupancy rates in the hospital are also more than 90 percent.
“We’re very busy with COVID again. It’s not really disappointing, we felt we had achieved it and felt like we were currently on a plateau,” Stormont Vail Health CEO Dr. Robert Kenagy, said. at the virtual news conference of the Department of Health.
Health officials say 86 percent of cases in Shawnee Co. had no known source of infection, up from 92 percent a week earlier but still in the “uncontrolled” area.
Last week’s overall score was 18.
On the vaccination front, the interim health officer, dr. Dennis Cooley, said the province is vaccinating health workers and those who are in phase one of vaccination groups.
He said a faster deployment of the vaccine is based on things like available space, staff and assurance that no doses of the vaccine will be lost.
He said as more people qualify, it will be a group effort to make sure everyone gets their dose.
“It will be larger numbers that we are dealing with, so it will be a whole kind of action that will enable us to get the vaccine in these groups,” he said.
Although the availability has expanded, he said people can not forget safety guidelines.
“Even though you have been vaccinated, you still have to use masks, but you still have to wash your hands and all the things we tell you about,” he said.
Steve Anderson of the University of Kansas Saint Francis campus said all 20 vaccine administrators were trained on staff to enter data.
Dr. Kenagy said 100 percent of the vaccine administrators at Stormont Vail were also trained about it.
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