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1 Kansas county at high COVID community level ahead of end of US emergency declaration

Kansas City Star - 5/7/2023

Barber County is the only Kansas county at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s high COVID-19 community level this week ahead of the May 11 expiration of the nation public health emergency.

Last week, zero counties were at high and just one was at medium. Other than Barber County, all other Kansas counties are at CDC’s low level as of Thursday evening.

The CDC updates the metric each Thursday for U.S. counties and bases the assessment on the number of new cases and hospitalizations per 100,000 people (seven-day totals) and the percent of staffed hospital beds occupied by COVID-positive patients (a seven-day average).

In counties at high, the federal health agency recommends individuals wear a mask in public, indoor settings. That recommendation extends to those at greater risk of severe illness in counties at medium.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported 486 new cases and 13 new deaths between April 26 and May 3. This is 83 cases fewer than last week, when the state reported 569 new cases.

Two Kansas counties, Sheridan and Hamilton, are at the state’s high COVID-19 incident rate and five are at substantial. Counties at the high rate are experiencing 100 or more cases per 100,000 people, and counties at a substantial rate are experiencing 50 to 99 cases, also per a population of 100,000.

Sedgwick County, along with 45 others, are at the state department’s moderate rate, experiencing 10 to 49 cases per 100,000 individuals.

The end of the national public health and other emergency declarations related to the coronavirus pandemic will mean a shift in reporting for all states as requirements are peeled back. The CDC is set to discontinue some publicly available data, like the community levels metric.

COVID-19 cases in Sedgwick County

The COVID-19 positive test rate in Sedgwick County continues to decline, dropping to 3.3% this week. The rate accounts for the 14-day average of recorded positives over the total number administered and does not include at-home tests and those not reported to the Sedgwick County Health Department.

The county health department reported 16 new COVID-19 cases the last seven days, with the highest reported in a single day being six reported May 1 and the lowest being zero reported May 3. This is down from last week, when the county reported 36 new cases.

See Sedgwick County’s COVID-19 dashboard below, which updates every Friday with the latest data.

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