Kansas reverses course, will share locations of active COVID-19 outbreaks
Gov. Laura Kelly announced Wednesday that Kansas will reverse course and start releasing the names and locations of active COVID-19 outbreaks in the state next week.
Until now, the state has only released this information when contract tracing is not possible. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) has left it to local health departments to discern whether the locations of active outbreaks should be shared with the public.
Starting next Wednesday, Sept. 9, active outbreak information, including the number of cases associated with each location, will be updated weekly on the KDHE website’s COVID-19 dashboard.
“With our children returning to school, sports resuming, and college campuses reopening — we’re seeing the largest increase in outbreaks to date,” Kelly said in a statement. “By sharing where the outbreaks take place, Kansans will be better informed about the threat of COVID-19 in their schools and communities, and will be better prepared to contain and stop the spread of the virus.”
Many active outbreaks, however, will still not be disclosed to the public. In Kansas, two or more cases associated with one known exposure constitutes an active outbreak.
According to Kelly’s announcement, locations of active outbreaks will generally be released when they have been linked to five or more confirmed cases. The names of private businesses will be made public only when they have been linked to 20 confirmed cases.
Kansas saw an increase of 26 outbreaks from last Wednesday to Friday — the highest increase in outbreaks to date, the officials said. To date, the state has had 43,940 cases and 458 deaths associated with the virus.
In June, The Star obtained a “classified” document listing the name and location of every COVID-19 outbreak as of May 19.
The confidential list, provided to The Star by Columbia University’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation, was attached to an email from the Kansas Health Alert Network, an invitation-only messaging system used by the KDHE. A spreadsheet provided the names of all known facilities with outbreaks to help local health departments better determine the sources of their cases.
Local officials were cautioned to hold the information closely.
“As needed, please share this list only with your local health department staff that are actively investigating cases of COVID-19,” read the unsigned message attached to the spreadsheet. “Please do not distribute this list further and please do not make the names of facilities outside of your county known publicly.
At least 846 cases and six deaths through May 19 were traced to the Lansing prison. The Tyson plant near Garden City had seen 571 cases and one death according to the document.