COVID-19 news: Missouri reports death, KC sees first cases, Kansas preserves supplies
As the new conoravirus spread further throughout the Kansas City region Wednesday, public health officials confirmed new cases, announced more measures to try to slow the contagion, and noted troubling benchmarks being passed.
Missouri recorded its first death. Johnson County, Kansas, shifted its approach to preserve supplies. Kansas City reported its first patients in two apparently unrelated cases. More were expected.
In Johnson County, where the virus is now spreading by community transmission, the number of COVID-19 cases found so far grew to 12 — the most in any Kansas county. Because of that, as well as limited testing resources, officials said there would be a “fundamental change” in the public health approach there: only residents who are hospitalized with conoravirus symptoms will be tested.
“If we don’t follow the public health guidelines for the management in community transmission,” Kansas Secretary of Health and Education Lee Norman said, “then what we’ll do is we’ll absolutely burn through our testing supplies because we will not have enough.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, five people in the county who tested positive did not contract the disease through travel or contact with known patients. Johnson County will still be able to track the number of cases based on testing and hospitalizations, Norman said, but the state will shift its testing supply for use in counties that have not reached community transmission.
The United States, he warned, is “tracing the exact same trajectory that you’re seeing for Italy,” where there have been 2,978 deaths. A month from now, he said, it is not unlikely that Kansas will have hundreds of cases.
“We have to do better,” Norman said.
Missouri
In Missouri, Gov. Mike Parson said the first person in the state to die from COVID-19 was a patient in their 60s who recently traveled overseas. The positive diagnosis was reported Tuesday by the Columbia-Boone County Department of Public Health.
Wednesday morning, the patient’s family called 911 to report a medical emergency, officials said. The patient was transported to University of Missouri-Columbia hospital, but died Wednesday. Six first responders were being quarantined.
“We are in this together,” Columbia Mayor Brian Treece said, “and we’ll get through this together.”
In Kansas City, the health department announced the city’s first two confirmed cases of the virus, which infected a woman in her 40s and man in his 30s. Both people were isolated in their homes and their cases appear to be unrelated.
“We knew it was only a matter of time before one of our residents would learn they had COVID-19,” Dr. Rex Archer, the city’s director of health, said in a news release. “With viruses, there are no borders. Everyone in the Kansas City metro area must be on guard. Leave your home only when absolutely necessary.”
A Children’s Mercy Hospital patient who tested positive for coronavirus, announced earlier Wednesday, was not a Kansas City resident, the health department said. The hospital had tested 103 children for the virus and its first positive result came back Tuesday.
Mayor Quinton Lucas said city officials know there will be more cases. People should “double down further” on their efforts to prevent the spread by following good hygiene practices and staying home, he said.
In Kansas City, gatherings of more than 10 people were banned, movie theaters were closed and restaurants were prohibited from offering dine-in service. Fourteen school districts have committed to remaining closed until April 3.
Those steps are “vital,” Lucas said.
Lucas believes the disease likely has been transmitted within the community “for a matter of days, if not longer.” He expects to see additional cases in the city and the surrounding areas with more testing.
“Our biggest message today is continue to follow the methods that we have laid out,” he said. “Continue your social distancing, continue, frankly, remaining home in all but essential situations because we are not out of the woods.”
The Kansas City cases were announced as at least six members of the Kansas City Council are in self-quarantine this week because of possible exposure to the novel coronavirus. The council members, some of whom attended the Congressional City Conference last week in Washington D.C. where two people tested positive, aren’t showing any symptoms.
Among the new cases Wednesday was one across the state in St. Louis, where Mayor Lyda Krewson said there was reason to believe there was community exposure after the second person to test positive for the new coronavirus there continued to go to work while exhibiting symptoms. The case, she said, “underscores the importance of what our healthcare professionals have been telling us.”
Growing impact
By Wednesday afternoon, there were at least 16 confirmed cases of the virus in Missouri and 23 in Kansas, including two new patients in Leavenworth County, one of whom was a woman in her 20s with no recent travel history.
The spread of the virus continued to dramatically upend daily life.
Local businesses continued to shut their doors, leaving many without paychecks. Thousands of Kansas City-area auto workers were told not to report to work as the Big Three automakers announced their facilities would shut down. Weddings were put off.
In response to the virus, Missouri’s governor announced Wednesday that municipal elections would be postponed to June 2.
Parson also said the state lab will soon receive more COVID-19 tests from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “pushing its capacity” to test 1,600 potential patients. Universities and private labs were also ramping up their efforts.
In Kansas, Gov. Laura Kelly signed an executive order freezing mortgage foreclosures and halting rent evictions. The order is in effect until May 1..
“We understand that this pandemic is creating unprecedented challenges for people across the state,” Kelly said in a statement. “Kansas families need our support, and my administration is committed to doing everything it can to make sure Kansans can stay in their homes and businesses. It’s a necessary step to further protect Kansans’ health and safety.”
Hospitals in the Kansas City region reported they have sufficient equipment, staff and ICU beds to accommodate the handful of serious cases they are seeing right now. If strategies like social distancing and avoiding crowds fail, the situation could change.
“Should the virus fell Kansas Citians in numbers anywhere near what we’re seeing in Italy,” said Steve Hoeger, director of safety and emergency management at Truman Medical Centers, “our local health care system would be similarly overloaded and physicians faced with tough choices of who to treat with limited resources and who would be left to die.”
The Kansas Supreme Court ordered all district and appellate courts to stop all but emergency operations and ongoing trials until further notice. The order is expected to remain in effect for at least two weeks, according to a news release.
Similar to Kansas City, Douglas County on Wednesday prohibited the gatherings of 10 people or more and closed restaurants, theaters and bars.
This story was originally published March 18, 2020 at 12:29 PM.
