BY JUSTIN SABATA
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Ellis County Director of Health Services Jason Kennedy cut to the chase regarding COVID-19 in the area during Monday\u2019s Ellis County Commission meeting. Kennedy addressed the unfortunate trends the county has seen for the past few months during the pandemic.
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\u201cSo, honestly, tonight what I was going to talk about is the same thing we\u2019ve talked about every night since, really, July and before that,\u201d Kennedy said to the commission. \u201cOur cases are too high, our percent-of-positives is too high.\u201d
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On Monday, the ECHD reported 118 active COVID cases and a weekly percent-of-positives rate of 17.8%. The overall rate (since testing first began) stands at 12.3%, still above the desired 10% the department is currently aiming for. If the overall rate falls below 10%, then long-term care facilities can be opened up for close family visits.
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\u201cAs the public continues to tire of restrictions, they will become more apathetic and more angry,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cThat\u2019ll mean more cases, we will continue to see this.\u201d
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\u201cI\u2019m starting to see a huge pushback, just what Jason talked about,\u201d said Second District Commissioner Dustin Roths. \u201cAs it goes on, more and more people are getting tired of it.\u201d
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There have been 13 deaths in the county attributed to COVID-19. Kennedy reported a slight decline in two-week cases per-1,000 people and a plateauing of weekly percent-of-positives and cases per day.
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\u201cOur (weekly) percent-of-positive stables out between 15 to 17 (percent) pretty much for the last two and a half months,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cJust cases per day, our cases per day has leveled out for about the last 14 days at about 10 or 12 cases per day.\u201d
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The ECHD reported an average of 12 new cases per day in the week leading up to Monday.
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Later on in the meeting, the commission discussed COVID regulations for schools in Kansas. In a KDHE document<\/a> specifically intended for K-12 education, symptomatic individuals are required to isolate for 10 days after symptoms begin or until they are without a fever for 72 hours without medicine. If a person is a close contact to an infectious person, then they must be in quarantine for 14 days. On Monday afternoon, nearby Pawnee County eliminated a required 14-day quarantine if both individuals were wearing two-ply masks at the time of contact. Commissioner Roths described his desire to lessen the restrictions on parts of the county with low COVID mortality rates. \u201cI think I\u2019d be interested in discussing that,\u201d Roths said. \u201cI think that as long as the school boards of Ellis County are interested in discussing that – I\u2019d be willing to consider lessening any of those burdens that they might deem to be something they would like to change from their perspective.\u201d The Hays USD 489 school district currently follows the guidelines from the ECHD and the KDHE. \u201cI\u2019ve seen, I guess, a lot of data,\u201d Roths said. \u201cWhether that data is consistent or right I guess isn\u2019t necessarily for elected officials to decide.\u201d
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