First coronavirus patient in Kansas ‘doing well,’ KU Hospital officials say
The University of Kansas Hospital is taking care of the state’s first coronavirus patient and the woman is doing well, hospital officials said Monday.
The patient is the same person Gov. Laura Kelly referenced on Saturday in announcing that Kansas had its first positive case, said Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson also announced on Saturday that state’s first positive case of COVID-19, in St. Louis County.
KU Hospital officials, who did not identify the woman and would not reveal specifics about her case, said she did everything right in self-isolating and wearing a mask when her symptoms began and when she went to the hospital.
On Saturday, Mary Beverly, interim director of the Johnson County Health Department, said the woman first felt symptoms on March 1 and went to her doctor’s office on March 2 or 3.
Exposure to people other than her own family members was “minimal,” Norman said.
The patient called the hospital before she arrived, hospital officials said, which is what health officials advise anyone who thinks they might have the virus to do before they go to their doctor’s office, urgent care or hospital.
When she arrived she was immediately isolated in a negative-pressure room, said Dana Hawkinson, director of the hospital’s inpatient critical care and an infectious diseases specialist.
Having her in the specially equipped “safe area” prevents the virus from spreading to other patients, visitors and staff, said hospital officials, who urged people to stay calm and not worry about being in the hospital building.
“Folks are still safe here,” said Steve Stites, chief medical officer for the University of Kansas Health System. “The risk from this patient is zero.”
Hospital officials emphasized several times that people do not have to panic. Stites said there’s no reason for anyone in the community to change their lives to the point of staying home and not going anywhere.
Asked whether the Big 12 men’s and women’s tournaments should still be held in Kansas City this week, Norman said that was a tough call to make, but didn’t see any reason — for now — that those plans should change because the virus hasn’t spread through communities in this part of Missouri and Kansas.
Still, “we’d feel better if it was held yesterday,” Norman said.
Health officials advise that people attending the tournaments follow the personal hygiene advice the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has promoted since the beginning of the outbreak: Wash your hands, cough into the crook of your elbow, avoid touching your face and stay home if you’re sick.
That also means, at the basketball games, it’s not a bad idea to wipe down your seat and the armrest with disinfectant wipes, just as recommended for airplane passengers.
And, health officials suggest fans in the group that appears to be most at risk — over age 50 but in particular older than 70 — who might have other health issues to think carefully about attending.
The CDC’s website now recommends that people at higher risk for the virus should “avoid crowds as much as possible” and that during an outbreak stay home as much as possible.
In Missouri, state health officials are tracking down people who might have come in close contact with the only person so far to have tested positive there, a woman in her 20s who had been studying abroad in Italy, where the disease is more widespread.
The woman’s father left self-quarantine on Saturday after she and the family were advised by their local health department to self-quarantine at home, health officials there said.
“We relied on common sense and good will toward the community to self quarantine,” St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said Sunday.
No cases have been confirmed in Kansas City, where Mayor Quinton Lucas released a joint statement Saturday night with the city’s health director and emergency medical services director following news of the coronavirus in Kansas and Missouri.
“While we do not yet have confirmed cases in Kansas City, we know we may have them in the future,” the statement said.
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