{"id":58896,"date":"2021-03-04T14:49:38","date_gmt":"2021-03-04T20:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=58896"},"modified":"2021-03-04T14:49:39","modified_gmt":"2021-03-04T20:49:39","slug":"infection-rates-continue-to-decline-in-ellis-co-weekly-percent-of-positives-at-0-90","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=58896","title":{"rendered":"Infection rates continue to decline in Ellis Co., weekly percent-of-positives at 0.90%"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>BY JUSTIN SABATA<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The continued decrease of COVID-19 in the area has continued into a new week. As reported by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ellisco.net\/693\/Covid-19-Portal\">Ellis County Health Department<\/a>, the 7-day average percent-of-positives on Wednesday was 0.90%. This is a decrease from Monday when the rate was 2.80%. And, a noticeable decrease from the 5.60% rate in the week leading up to last Friday.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For further comparison, the weekly rate once stood over 30% in late November. Ellis County Director of Health Services Jason Kennedy explained these recent statistics during Monday\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DbkXsTSm4pQ\">county commission meeting<\/a>.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFor the first time since this pandemic started, Ellis County sees a precipitous decline in its percent-of-positive,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cWhich means less illness in the community.\u201d&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The amount of tests given can make an impact on weekly statistics. Kennedy assured that testing numbers have remained high in the area while the infection numbers have gone down.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cActually, in the last few weeks, we\u2019ve had some of our highest days of testing ever,\u201d Kennedy said.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>36 active cases were reported by the health department on Wednesday. As cases decline, the county has seen an increase in activity. Due to the lower numbers, the health director did not discourage the community from returning to normal.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re moving back towards some level of normalcy and it\u2019s a good time to do that,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cOur cases are low, we want to keep them low, but we also understand that people need to move forward with life.\u201d&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the same time, Kennedy encouraged residents to still take proper precautions. Especially, if one is feeling symptomatic.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs we go through spring, people just still need to be somewhat smart &#8211; if you\u2019re sick, stay home, if you don\u2019t feel well, stay home &#8211; if you\u2019re symptomatic, go get tested,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cIt&nbsp; might actually not be COVID, you might have something else wrong with you.\u201d&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Attending scheduled doctor\u2019s appointments and being active outdoors was also promoted by the health director.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A little over 14% of the Kansas population has received the first dose of the vaccine. Counties across Kansas are allocated amounts of vaccine based on infection rates and population. Kennedy provided an update on the vaccine in Ellis County on Monday.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve given around 3,000 frontline doses just at our vaccine clinic, that doesn\u2019t include what HaysMed has given to frontline healthcare workers,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cAnd, about 1000 second doses. We do have another 500 for this week.\u201d&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The U.S. currently has the goal of reaching enough vaccine supply for all adults by the end of May. For now, Kennedy advises residents to sign up for the vaccine using the online <a href=\"https:\/\/form.jotform.com\/210066258239051\">COVID-19 Vaccine Request Form<\/a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cVaccine availability will get better,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cWe still need everybody to get signed up.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those who are not 65 years or older are still encouraged to fill out the request form.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY JUSTIN SABATA The continued decrease of COVID-19 in the area has continued into a new week. As reported by the Ellis County Health Department,&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":56080,"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":[13675,11],"tags":[13713,1759,69,106,3704,13801,12479,103,290],"class_list":["post-58896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coronavirus","category-news","tag-covid","tag-ellis-county","tag-fhsu","tag-fort-hays-state-university","tag-haysmed","tag-jason-kennedy","tag-justin-sabata","tag-tiger-media-network","tag-tmn"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/elliscovid.png?fit=1307%2C873&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\/58896","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=58896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58897,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58896\/revisions\/58897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}