Steep increase in coronavirus cases in Missouri, Kansas drew attention in fed report
A federal coronavirus report that emerged this week showing the Kansas City area was a “location to watch” also raises concerns about a steep increase in cases in Kansas and Missouri.
The states had a nearly identical rate of new cases — each increasing approximately 31% on a week-by-week basis — according to the report. The document is dated May 7, although it’s not certain what date ranges were explored.
The full version of the leaked Federal Emergency Management Agency document put Kansas and Missouri among states where new coronavirus cases are increasing.
FEMA did not respond to a request to clarify the time period covered.
“Information released in the leaked documents contains analysis and data from both government and academic institutions that are supporting the response,” a FEMA spokesperson said in an email to The Star. “Various reports are generated daily for leadership to help operational planning.”
Both states are doing more testing, which may account for the increase in cases. A closer examination shows Kansas and Missouri are also pockmarked with coronavirus hot spots.
Two counties — Buchanan in Missouri and Leavenworth in Kansas — rank second and third, respectively, for the increase in cases in the country.
“Are we concerned about any of these spikes and potential hot spots? Absolutely,” said Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly during a Wednesday briefing. “That’s why we’re working very closely with our local public health departments. They’re fully aware of what’s going on and we’re doing everything we can to get them the tools they need to both prevent further spread but also to deal with what they’ve got.”
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, while questioning the document’s figures, said residents still have to keep their guard up.
“Here’s the other thing: there’s going to be spikes from time to time and this is going to happen, whether it’s a nursing home or people are congregating,” Parson said. “This virus is still out there. I want to stress that every day. That’s why social distancing is such an important part of how we fight the coronavirus. You have to keep that in there.”
The document showed that the Kansas City region, which includes several counties in Kansas and Missouri, was labeled a “location to watch” due to a 220% increase in new cases.
“I do know this: Kansas City has done an extremely good job taking care of the coronavirus up there compared to other cities of its size,” Parson said.
Here’s a look at where the outbreaks are occurring in the two states:
Leavenworth and St. Joseph
The Leavenworth County Health Department reported 938 positive cases as of Tuesday afternoon. Of those, 738 were from an outbreak within the walls of the Lansing State Prison. That number represents only the number of infections among inmates in a prison that houses 1,700. Prison staffers are counted separately, a county spokesperson said.
There have been two guards from the Lansing prison who have died from complications of coronavirus; the second one died Tuesday.
A new outbreak emerged in Leavenworth County at the Grossman Center, a residential re-entry facility for prisoners transitioning back into society following a prison sentence. The center is affiliated with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
The Leavenworth County Health Department said Tuesday that the facility was quarantined after two positive coronavirus cases were reported. Subsequent testing of residents and staff at Grossman Center revealed 42 positive cases, many among those who showed no symptoms of a coronavirus virus infection.
Contact tracing, the process of investigating among who and where coronavirus carriers have been, has led the Leavenworth County Health Department to believe that the exposure at the Grossman Center is linked to residents who work at the Triumph Foods processing plant in St. Joseph, Missouri.
A substantial outbreak at Triumph Foods — more than 400 employees have tested positive for coronavirus, many of them not showing symptoms — has resulted in many coronavirus cases in the Kansas City region.
Rex Archer, Kansas City Health Department director, told The Star on Tuesday that about 70 of Kansas City’s coronavirus cases are linked to Triumph Foods. In Wyandotte County, 78 cases are connected to Triumph Foods.
Buchanan County, Missouri, where St. Joseph is located, appears on the FEMA document as the county with the third largest increase in the country in new coronavirus cases over successive seven-day periods with 310, or a 656% increase.
Ahead of Buchanan County is Leavenworth County, with 587 new cases, or a 1,176% increase over successive seven-day periods.
Adding the 42 cases at the Grossman Center to the prison numbers, that leaves a modest 158 cases in the broader community of Leavenworth County, which has a population of more than 81,000 residents.
Trousdale County, Tennessee, with 1,233 new cases, or a 1,198% increase week-over-week, had the largest increase in the country, according to the FEMA report.
Meatpacking in Kansas
Leaving the Kansas City and Wichita areas aside, a map of Kansas coronavirus infections by county corresponds closely with the locations of meatpacking and food processing plants in the state.
Ford County has more cases than any county in Kansas with 1,232, despite having a population comparable to Leawood. Most of the clusters in Ford County, whose largest city is Dodge City, are tied to meat packing plants in the area.
Ford County officials declined to comment on specific cases involving private businesses.
J.D. Gilbert, Ford County administrator, said the public health department has not been overwhelmed by the number of cases.
“To answer your question more directly, we have not seen any signs that the healthcare system is overwhelmed with the exception of not having enough testing supplies,” Gilbert said in an email.
Even so, Ford County has the highest testing rate in Kansas. Ford County had tested 93 people per 1,000 residents, according to Kansas Department of Health and Environment data. That’s higher than 32 cases per 1,000 in Wyandotte County, or 17 per 1,000 in Johnson County.
R.C. Trotter, the Ford County medical officer, said the county “in an effort to get ahead of this disease started testing early and hard. That is why our numbers are so high.”
More testing likely results in more reported coronavirus cases; many of the positive cases in Ford County are asymptomatic and have not required hospitalization.
Seward County in southwest Kansas on Wednesday reported its first death from coronavirus. Seward County has had 727 positive coronavirus tests.
National Beef Packing Co. has a facility in Liberal, the county seat of Seward County.
“We have a large population of residents that work at our meat processing plant, so I think accordingly a lot of our positives work there,” said Martha Brown, director of the Seward County Health Department.
Brown added that Merriam-based Seaboard has a pork processing plant about 40 miles away in Guymon, Oklahoma, where some Seward County residents work and have tested positive for coronavirus.
Finney County, another southwestern Kansas meatpacking community, has 1,007 coronavirus cases. Finney County is home to a Tyson beef plant, another cluster of positive coronavirus cases.
On Wednesday, Johnsonville announced it was temporarily closing its sausage plant in the northeast Kansas town of Holton after five employees tested positive. The Johnsonville plant is Holton’s largest employer with 220 workers.
Meatpacking infections account for 1,536 coronavirus cases and four deaths in Kansas, according to Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. That’s far less than the number of deaths associated with nursing homes in the Kansas City area and elsewhere.
Norman said meatpacking facilities tend to employ younger and healthier workers. Coronavirus more severely affects older people or those with underlying medical problems.
Missouri cases
Rural counties in Missouri have fared better than rural Kansas.
Missouri, as of Wednesday, had 10,142 positive cases. More than half of that comes from St. Louis City and St. Louis County, which account for a combined 5,405 cases.
St. Louis numbers dwarf even those coming from the Missouri-side of the Kansas City area, which has recorded 1,361 cases.
Still, Missouri has had to grapple with problems stemming from food processing facilities in small towns like Milan and Marshall.
A sign of good news for Missouri, though: After sustaining a spike of coronavirus cases in late April and early May, the number of new cases has dropped since May 9, two days after the FEMA document was published.
The Star’s Jonathan Shorman and Crystal Thomas contributed to this report.
