Fourth COVID-19 death reported in Wyandotte County; cases increase in Johnson County
A fourth person has died of the new coronavirus in Wyandotte County, according to statistics from health officials updated Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, the number of people testing positive for the virus in Johnson County rose by 2 to at least 82 cases. Johnson County has reported a total of two deaths from COVID-19.
In Kansas, at least 262 people have tested positive for the coronavirus. The latest death in Wyandotte County brought the total number of people killed by the disease in Kansas to six.
With about 3,932 people testing negative, Kansas residents were testing positive for the virus at a rate of about 6%.
The fourth person to die in Wyandotte County was a man in his 90s. He was originally diagnosed with COVID-19 on March 21 and died a week later, on Saturday, according to Janell Friesen, communications coordinator for the Unified Government Public Health department.
The man’s death was included on a new statistical dashboard the Unified Government Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, unveiled Friday.
Wyandotte County has 52 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 23 patients hospitalized. The county also has 102 self-reporting responses, of which 38 are probable cases, according to the statistics.
The self-reporting category refers to reports that the county has received through its “Self-Report Your Symptoms” tool on its website.
“Based on the symptoms people report, some of the reports are deemed ‘probable cases’ — meaning they have not been tested for COVID-19, but it is very likely that they have COVID-19 based on what they reported,” Friesen said in an email. “People with ‘probable’ COVID-19 should isolate at home, just like someone with test-confirmed COVID-19.”
The county is gathering the information to better track the spread of the disease locally and provide additional guidance to those who may be sick, she said.
A man in his 80s with “multiple underlying health conditions” died Thursday from the disease, health officials said Friday. The man, who lived at home prior to his death, was diagnosed with COVID-19 Monday.
On Tuesday, county officials reported that a man in his 70s had died at a hospital after he tested positive for the virus. Earlier this month, a man in his 70s who lived in a long-term care facility in Wyandotte County was posthumously diagnosed with the disease.
In Johnson County, a woman in her 90s who had underlying health conditions died from the disease, county health officials announced Saturday. The first death in the county was a man in his 70s.
This story was originally published March 29, 2020 at 11:57 AM.
