Centers for Disease Control website<\/a>, rapid antigen tests are used to detect specific viral molecules.\u00a0
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cSo, if you go and get a rapid test in Russell, you\u2019re considered a probable case, not a confirmed case,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cSo, our probable cases has gone from 13 to 43 in about two weeks – and that\u2019s because more people are bringing on rapid antigen testing.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The county\u2019s weekly percent-of-positives rate remains at 18.9% due to the amount of tests performed on residents showing symptoms of the virus.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMostly because we\u2019re testing symptomatic people,\u201d said Kennedy. \u201cFrom the start, we have always encouraged people to go see their primary care physician if you\u2019re symptomatic.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As of Monday, 8,717 COVID tests have been administered in the county with 1,075 returning positive since recording first began, an overall percent-of-positives rate of 12.3%.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI would love to see it quite a bit lower,\u201d said Kennedy. \u201cFor one reason, if we get under 10%, we can open long-term care facilities to close family visits. If we get under 5%, we can open them up completely.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kennedy further elaborated on the hardships being faced in these facilities.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019ve done inside of long-term care facilities – or what the State and the federal government have done inside of long-term care facilities is truly appalling,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had these people locked up for nine months – they\u2019ve not been able to see family, they\u2019ve not been able to have any positive social interaction. Which we are starting to see is having a significant detriment on their mental health, and really just their overall general health.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Multiple sources report a noticeable increase in mental health-related illnesses since the pandemic began, especially in the elderly. However, Kennedy stated that blame should not be placed on the long-term care facilities themselves.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve done everything they can to protect these residents, but we need the community to do their part,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cWe need to get these numbers down so we can open those facilities up and lead to some of those positive impacts for them.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ellis County residents are encouraged to follow the guidelines recommended by the CDC and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. These measures include washing your hands, avoiding close contact and large groups, wearing a face cover, and monitoring your health daily.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a question brought up by Commissioner Dustin Roths, Kennedy explained what residents can do in order to prepare their immune systems for possible illnesses as the colder seasons approach.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJust general overall health is the best way to beat or combat any virus that you don\u2019t have a vaccine for,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cAll of those measures will also make you more able to deal with the flu, to deal with cold, to deal with anything that we look at.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kennedy stated that these measures can include getting a flu shot, exercising, eating healthy, and refraining from smoking or consuming alcohol.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Justin Sabata Ellis County has seen a decrease in active COVID-19 cases with 145, contrasting the more than 180 cases last week. According to the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":56078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3397,13675,11],"tags":[13676,13616,1759,11854,468,13801,12479,103],"class_list":["post-56537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-area-news","category-coronavirus","category-news","tag-covid-19","tag-dustin-roths","tag-ellis-county","tag-ellis-county-commission","tag-ellis-county-health-department","tag-jason-kennedy","tag-justin-sabata","tag-tiger-media-network"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/covid-ellis-county-logo.png?fit=1308%2C874&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56537"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56538,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56537\/revisions\/56538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}