BY JUSTIN SABATA
COVID Cases Decrease
Active cases in Ellis County gradually decreased throughout last week. It started with 18 cases on Monday, down to 17 on Wednesday, then to 15 reported on Friday. The weekly percent-of-positives rate remained low as well and peaked at 3.7% on Monday. On Friday, the rate was at 2.8% according to the Ellis County Health Department’s COVID-19 Portal.
The number of new cases has gradually decreased statewide. During a press briefing on Wednesday, Gov. Laura Kelly reported 778 new cases from Monday to Wednesday. There have been 519 new cases since the middle of the week.
“Over the past two weeks, Kansas has had a 52% decrease in cases,” Kelly said. “And a 62% decrease in deaths.”
35 new deaths in Kansas were also announced earlier in the week by Kelly. However, there were no new deaths reported across the state from Wednesday to Friday.
Vaccine in Kansas
The COVID vaccine continues to be shipped weekly to Ellis County. 600 doses were delivered to the county according to the KDHE, the same as nearby Barton County. This is an increase from the 500 weekly doses delivered over the past month.
“Kansas is receiving more and more doses every shipment,” Kelly said. “And we expect these increases to continue.”
The governor also reported that the state received about 130,000 doses this week. As of Friday, 18.1% of Kansans have received the first dose of the vaccine. A total of 264,981 second doses have been administered across Kansas.
FHSU COVID-19 Dashboard Report
Fort Hays State University updated their COVID-19 Dashboard on Tuesday. These reports have been given weekly and provide information on testing results from the previous week. According to the dashboard, 11 tests were conducted at the Student Health Center from February 27 to March 5. None of those tests returned positive or had pending results.
FHSU conducted a semester-high 287 surveillance tests during the same time period. Two of those tests returned positive. No students were held in on-campus quarantine or off-campus isolation last week.